The content providers -- TV channels, FM Radio stations, e-commerce companies and credit card majors -- have blamed the service providers and mobile value-added services (VAS) operators for the problem.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has pulled up Cellular Operators Association of India
For the first time in nearly two years since the conditional access system (CAS) had been enforced in select areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, the prices of pay channels have been revised by the broadcast regulator based on inflation.
Two leading GSM operators -- Airtel and Hutch -- hiked local call charges within their own networks to Rs 1.20 a minute from Re one and also SMS tariffs were raised to Rs 1.20 from Re one. Earlier this month, they had raised STD rates too.
Amid reports of a possible delay in release of spectrum by the defence forces, DoT is going ahead with regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's recommendations on auctioning the airwaves with a reserve base price.
The regulator has sought information from telecom licencees on their recovery methods, under an attempt to curb the growing problem.
For national long distance calling, the government had proposed 'One-India' in a bid to create uniform call rate across the country and for this it had invited four telecom players.
The broadcasters will offer the same bouquets to the DTH operators as are being offered by them for non-CAS cable distribution. In addition, they are free to offer additional bouquets, Trai said in a statement. This is in consonance with the TDSAT's judgement dated in March, 2007, it said, adding all bouquet rates and the a-la-carte rates must satisfy the provisions of the aforesaid interconnection regulations.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India floated a consultation paper on playing an active role in monitoring the Indian television viewership. TAM Media Research is the sole player in the monitoring market for the last 10 years. TAM's CEO L V Krishnan says govt should start regulating all types of rating outputs like daily newspaper polls done via SMS or even TV polls during elections and not just TV TRPs. TAM is often criticised for its poor sample size, TRP system, etc.
Ending all speculation surrounding the roll-out of conditional access system (CAS) in the country, the government on Tuesday gave in-principle approval to CAS extension in rest of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, and subsequently in 55 cities in a phased manner as suggested by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
This means that if Star TV's bouquet of 14 channels is priced at Rs 88 in non-CAS areas (70 million cable TV homes), it can charge only Rs 44 or less from existing DTH operators like Tata Sky, Dish TV and new entrants like Big TV, Bharti and Sun Direct. But all broadcasters are charging more from DTH companies than from non-CAS cable homes.
State-run BSNL has questioned the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's powers and jurisdiction in matters relating to interconnection between the PSU and other private service providers.
The Rs 200,000 plus perks hike for regulators proposed in the Sixth Pay Commission is likely to attract good talent. It would be sufficient incentive for both private sector executives and serving bureaucrats to join as watchdogs. The Commission has recommended that the remuneration of chairpersons of regulatory agencies like the Sebi, Irda, Trai, CERC as well as the Competition Commission of India be hiked to Rs 300,000 if they do not avail of perks like cars and housing.
India is set to become the world's second largest wireless network, ousting US to the third slot, by April. China tops the global ranks with over 540 million wireless customers in February 2008, followed by the US with 260.50 million and India with 250.93 million.
In a strong pitch for limiting cut-throat competition, GSM operators have urged the government to limit the number of telecom operators per circle.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said on Thursday it may intervene to mend differences between ESPN and its distributors in conditional access system areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata to ensure that subscribers get to watch the sports channel.
Leading service provider Spice Telecom has said consumer must be given competitive choices to choose from and number of telecom players in a circle cannot be an issue.
Congestion level is rising with surging mobile subscriber base resulting in loss of calls and poor quality of service, but the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India says it cannot issue show cause over this lapse as the matter is subjudice.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Friday announced setting up of a Telecom Consumers Education and Protection Fund to educate and inform the consumers.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has set the ball rolling for the second phase of telecom reforms with the issue of a consultation paper seeking the industry's views on review of key license conditions and capping the number of access providers.
India's telecom subscriber base grew to over 1.17 billion in October with Bharti Airtel maintaining its leadership in mobile subscriber addition that accounts for over 98 per cent of total connections in the country, according to the monthly report released by sector regulator Trai on Wednesday. This is the second consecutive month when Airtel added highest number of subscribers. In September, it had regained the leadership position in subscriber addition after a gap of four years. The Sunil Bharti Mittal-led company added 3.67 million new customers in October, taking its total wireless customer base to 330.28 million in October 2020, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) report said.
TRAI has registered 28.16 crore telecom subscribers, with an addition of 87.4 lakh in Jan itself.
At present, the FDI limit for FM radio companies is 20 per cent. A senior Trai official has indicated that it could recommend an increase between 26 and 74 per cent.
Finding a solution to the spectrum allocation issue will be the main challenge before A Raja, country's new communications minister, who has replaced Dayanadhi Maran.
TRAI on Wednesday asked service providers to ensure international mobile roaming (IMR) service is kept 'inactive' by default for all subscribers, and is activated only on explicit request by consumer, as the regulator revamped the framework to protect users from unintentional usage and consequent 'bill shocks'.
In Metro circles only Bharti-Mumbai, BPL-Mumbai, Reliance- Mumbai and Tata-Mumbai meet the benchmark.
Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal has clubbed the two cases filed by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited challenging Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's decision to reduce the levy collected from private operators.
As per TRAI norms, Vodafone and Airtel are close to getting added spectrums, given their growing subscriber rates.
Private GSM operators on Thursday got a reprieve from Supreme Court, which has stayed Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's notices asking them to refund excess charges levied from customers on calls made to the networks of PSU telecom firms.
A meeting to resolve these differences has been called on April 5 by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
Broadcast regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India will hold a meeting with the stakeholders on Thursday to discuss how to roll-out conditional access system in the metros.
While the government is planning to introduce mobile number portability (MNP) in metros in the near future, preliminary developments suggest the subscribers and service providers will share the Rs 200 cost of every such portability operation.
State-run BSNL on Saturday approached telecom tribunal TDSAT against sector regulator TRAI's decision to cut a levy paid by private operators to the public sector company for its rural operations.
The declining prices of mobile handsets and low connectivity costs have helped in doubling Internet access through cellphones this year.
The United States has accused Tata group company VSNL (Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd) of impeding competition for American companies in the bandwidth market by resorting to unacceptable pricing mechanism.
Players such as Net4, Sify and Worldphone Internet Services are offering International long distance (ILD) calls that work out to less than a rupee a minute by using a technology called Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Around 80 million minutes worth of calls are made via VoIP every month (legally), according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
