Telenor hopes for early solution to investment issues in India (India, Norway)
Wireless operator Telenor is hopeful that it would be allowed to carry out its operations in India as well as re-bid in the new 2G auctions, following positive talks between the prime minister’s of the two countries.
According to reports, Telenor’s executive vice president & Asia head Sigve Brekke said that in the backdrop of the encouraging PM-level discussions between India and Norway in Seoul, they expect a solution to emerge and remain invested in India. He added that since the Norwegian government owns 54 percent of Telenor, they are hopeful of an early solution.
Brekke added that they are yet to receive a specific assurance from the Indian government, but are hopeful the 2G auction and their licence expiry dates will be aligned, paving the way for Telenor to particpate in the airwaves auction.
The company has earlier announced that it will end its partnership with Unitech Wireless and will sought out a new partner for a joint venture.
Vodafone issues notice to Indian government in tax case (India)
Vodafone has served the Indian government with a Notice of Dispute (Notice) regarding proposals in the Indian Finance Bill 2012 that violate the international legal protections granted to Vodafone and other international investors in India.
The Notice, served by the group’s Dutch subsidiary Vodafone International Holdings BV (VIHBV), is the first step required prior to the commencement of international arbitration under the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) between India and the Netherlands. VIHBV is a company constituted under the laws of the Netherlands and therefore an investor as defined under Article 1(d) of the Treaty.
The dispute arises from the retrospective tax legislation proposed by the Indian government which, if enacted, would have serious consequences for a wide range of Indian and international businesses, as well as direct and negative consequences for Vodafone. The proposed legislation would also countermand the verdict of the Indian Supreme Court in January 2012, which ruled that Vodafone had no liability to account for withholding tax on its acquisition of indirect interests in Hutchison Essar Limited in 2007.
Vodafone believes that the retrospective tax proposals amount to a denial of justice and a breach of the Indian government’s obligations under the BIT to accord fair and equitable treatment to investors.
The Indian government’s retrospective tax proposals have also raised significant and widespread concern within India and internationally and have been criticised by businesses and industry bodies representing more than 250,000 companies across the US, Europe and Asia.
Vodafone has asked the Indian government to abandon or suitably to amend the retrospective aspects of the proposed legislation as Vodafone would prefer to reach an amicable solution to this matter. However, if the Indian government is not willing to do so, Vodafone will take whatever steps are necessary to protect its shareholders’ interests, including commencing investment treaty arbitration proceedings under the BIT against the Indian government.
Indian government to amend tax law following Vodafone tax case (India)
Following the Indian Supreme Court’s decision favouring Vodafone in the US$ 2.2 billion tax case, India proposed amending a law that will enable it to tax capital gains involving foreign companies with assets in the nation, as reported by BN.
As per the documents submitted by Indian finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, the change will be retrospective from April 1, 1962.
Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia had ruled that the government can’t seek capital gains tax from Vodafone’s purchase of Hutchison’s wireless assets because the transaction occurred between foreign companies. The court also ordered the government to return the US$ 496 million deposit made by Vodafone, along with a 4 per cent interest.
The report reveal that the amendment will affect US$ 7.9 billion of tax payable to the government, as said by Finance Secretary R.S. Gujral.
Indian security agencies dissatisfied with RIM’s interception solution
The Indian government has announced that the country’s security agencies have expressed dissatisfaction over the solution provided by BlackBerry smartphone maker Research-In-Motion (RIM).
According to Minister of State for IT and Communications Sachin Pilot, for Blackberry Messenger (BBM) services, a solution has been offered by RIM but the Security Agencies are not satisfied with the solution.
The government has asked RIM to handover interception solution for its BlackBerry Internet Services (BIS), BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and BlackBerry Enterprise Servers (BES) by January 31, 2011.
RIM later claimed it has given government solution to intercept BIS and BBM before the stipulated timeline but denied to have any solution to intercept BES.
According to Pilot, RIM has not yet given the solution for interception of their BlackBerry Enterprise Services (BES). According to RIM, they do not have any key for this service because communication offered through this service is dynamically encrypted.
The Minister mentioned the message in text can be obtained from Enterprise Email servers, where it is in readable format. Enterprise Email servers are deployed for corporate houses.
According to Indian Telegarph Act, 1885 and the licensing term and condition of telecom service providers, it is required for companies to provide Lawful Interception and Monitoring solution for any service they provide.
However, in case of Blackberry security agencies are only able to intercept voice (phone calls), SMS and BIS.
Telco operators to submit plans by month end(India)
The Indian Government has fixed March 31 as the deadline for all telecom operators to submit plans for interception of their services, including popular BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) of Research in Motion (RIM) and Skype by security agencies.
A senior official has stated that the home ministry has asked the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) to ensure that all telecom operators submit their plans by the end of this month on when they can provide access to all services, including BlackBerry’s BES, whenever there is a necessity for the security agencies.
He stated that DoT had been in contact with the telecom operators who, under their licensing agreement, were negotiating the details with the smart-phone service providers. The department would tell the home ministry about the deadlines, which would be final in terms of downloading certain software in mobile handsets itself to ensure interception. If they fail to give access, they have to put their services off in India. He explained that once the companies provide solution within the deadlines, the retrofitment or download of certain softwares in the handsets for legal interception would not be difficult.
The Centre will also put in place a security architecture for the telecom sector through which the government could put in a new facility to deposit open software in certain forms and new testing facility (labs).
RIM accepts India’s BlackBerry Demands
The Indian government has reached an agreement with RIM that will allow government agencies to pry on traffic originating from the BlackBerry Messenger Service. It’s a temporary solution, but as per the Indian government a permanent deal should be in place by Jan. 31, 2011.
India had threatened RIM to shutter the service if they don’t provide a permanent solution to the Indian government. From that point of time BlackBerry maker Research In Motion was struggling to find out a solution as if they fail they will be at a risk of losing access to a market of more than 1 billion people.
India and several other nations in Asia and the Middle East have expressed concern that terrorists can use texting services like BBM to carry out their activities, and without government monitoring; they might be able to do so unchecked. The United Arab Emirates came to a similar agreement with RIM a couple of weeks ago, although BBM wasn’t specifically mentioned.
RIM assures final Messenger solution by end-January: Indian government
As per the Indian government, Research In Motion(RIM) has set up a short-term arrangement for legal interception of BlackBerry Messenger services and has assured to provide a final solution by end-January. And according to government source, talks are still on over access to corporate emails.
India, among several countries had expressed concerns over BlackBerry services that could be used to stir political or social instability, and had threatened RIM with a ban if denied access to its highly secure Messenger and corporate email communications.
RIM had won a 60-day acquittal at the end of August after offering India a solution to monitor some BlackBerry data, a claim yet to be confirmed by the Canadian firm.
According to the statement by India’s interior ministry RIM had assured the government that they would provide the final solution for lawful interception of BlackBerry Messenger services by January 31. Accordingly, the BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) services will continue to be available.
India, the world’s fastest-growing mobile market, wants access to encrypted email traffic sent via RIM’s enterprise servers. As per the BlackBerry maker, its system is designed so that only the sponsoring business or organization has the technical capability to grant such access.
According to the Canadian firm, RIM can confirm that its discussions with the Indian government continue to be constructive and RIM remains optimistic about reaching a positive and final resolution.
Number portability roll-out to miss the deadline (India)
The mobile number portability has again became a question mark as Indian telecom operators to scuttle the launch of mobile number portability (MNP) and lack of will on the part of the government to ring in the new rule which has dashed all hopes of it becoming a reality from October 31, the government’s latest deadline for putting MNP in place.
MNP gives the opportunity to mobile subscribers to migrate to other operators while retaining their number within the circle. The MNP roll-out was initially to take place by December 31, 2009 in all the metros across the country. The deadline was later deferred to March 31, 2010 and then to June 30, 2010. The government had set October 31 as the latest deadline for the roll-out of MNP across all 23 telecom circles in the country.
MNP is now all set to get postponed for the fourth time in less than a year.
According to officials, MNP is expected to be pushed forward by two to three months. A government panel, which was expected to take a call on security clearance for US-based Telcordia Technologies Inc, which together with Syniverse Technologies Inc was supposed to roll out MNP pan-India from October 31 – has not met so far.
DoT had earlier issued a show-cause notice to Telcordia asking why its license for MNP should not be cancelled. Telcordia has been given time till the third week of October to respond to DoT’s notice, making the MNP roll-out almost impossible.
Telcordia Technologies received Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval for India’s MNP project in March last year.
But the home ministry revoked the clearance in August on security grounds as the company has operations in Pakistan.
Telcordia explained that it was only a software vendor for Pakistan operations and had no other business interests there. But the Indian authorities are not convinced.
As per Telecom officials, lobbies have been creating trouble for Telcordia Technologies Inc by raking up the issue of its operations in Pakistan. This was aimed at delaying the implementation of MNP.
BlackBerry’s suspension in UAE ‘finally’ averted
As per Mohammed al-Ghanim, director general of the country’s telecom regulator,, the United Arab Emirates’ deal with Research In Motion Ltd. that averted a suspension of BlackBerry smartphone services is finalâ€.
RIM’s pact announced on Oct. 8, which averted a ban planned for Oct. 11, cme after Saudi Arabia canceled a planned shutdown of BlackBerry services and the Indian government said it would push back a deadline to suspend BlackBerry services as it works toward a solution.
Al-Ghanim declined to provide further details.
RIM in positive discussions with India
Research In Motion Ltd. is in talks with the Indian government to allow interception and monitoring of its BlackBerry messenger , corporate email services and declares that it will continue to be constructive.
India was worried that terrorists could use BlackBerry’s highly encrypted software to communicate with the concealed BlackBerry corporate email services if RIM fails to come up with a solution for monitoring the service by the end of August.
India, who is in talks with RIM since the end of August, later extended the deadline for monitoring services by 60 days.
According to Indian Telecommunications Secretary R. Chandrashekhar, the government and RIM officials are in talks in order to find an appropriate solution to the issue.
India had warned that RIM would have to set up a server in India if it wishes to continue operating in the country. The Department of Telecommunications is expected to submit its report on using a local server by the end of October this year.
