www.WirelessFederation.com/news: As India still continues to be in process for creating 3G policies, USA based vendor Motorola intends to test the 4G technology, which may become a cause of threat to the Indian government’s plan to raise Rs 35,000 crore from selling radio frequency for the existing version.
Motorola, which has tested the new next generation technology, called Long-Term Evolution (LTE), is all set to start trial services of 4G that can offer 70 MB per second (Mbps) download speeds on a mobile phone by 2009-end.
The company will, according to sources, will approach DoT for trial spectrum.
On 08.24.09, In Mobile, By Editor
On 08.03.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Department of Telecommunication, DoT India, isa thinking of the introduction of 4G or LTE technologies in India, where in the 3G policies are still undergoing final process.
The DoT is of a view that each operator offering 4G technologies should be given at least 10 Mhz spectrum compared to just 5 Mhz for 3G services.
“4G technology, LTE Advance, may also come in India in 2.1 Ghz band, as 2.5 Ghz is mostly used for satellite-based networks.
For this technology, the minimum channel size required is 10 Mhz. We need to cater for the introduction of this technology in the country,” the DoT reportedly said.
On 07.27.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is reportedly implicit to have called on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to limit the number of operators licensed to offer mobile voice services.
DoT said, ‘The number of pending applications in every circle ranges from 13-19 and consideration of these will push the demand for spectrum in a substantial manner.’ Moreover, DoT also noted the fact that the telecom tribunal had called for a reassessment of the policy not to impose limits on the number of operators.
On 07.27.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Union Ministry of Communications and IT has left it to the Finance Ministry to decide the appropriate time for divesting 10 per cent equity in Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.
Delivering the keynote address at the fifth Assocham Global Telecom Summit here, Mr. Siddharth Behura, Secretary, Department of Telecom, said, “As far as the issue of BSNL disinvestment is concerned, the ball is in the court of the Finance Ministry which will decide the time and issue price as the necessary consultations between the Ministry of Communications & IT and the Finance Ministry have been concluded and it is left to the latter to launch BSNL disinvestment at a conducive time.”
However, the BSNL employees union has strongly opposed divestment on the grounds that it will not benefit the company in any way. BSNL’s profits dipped drastically last year to just over Rs 100 crore from over Rs 3,000 crore in 2007-08.
Mr Behura also said mobile number portability (MNP) may be introduced only by the end of the year. MNP allows subscribers to change their operator without having to give up their mobile numbers. DoT had earlier said number portability would be introduced by September. However, regulatory issues, including tariffs and port charges, were yet to be decided by the telecom regulator.
While the two companies which have been given the licence to set up MNP in India — Syniverse and Telcordia — have told the telecom regulator that they would like to charge about Rs 200 for each subscriber porting, TRAI has pegged it at Rs 100.
On 07.24.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Department of Telecommunications, DoT, has decided to impose a 3 year lock in period on the equity stake held by promoters of new telecom companies. The Government has notified that a UAS (Universal Access Service) Licence holder will have a lock-in period of three years or till the fulfilment of all the roll-out obligations, whichever is earlier, before promoters can sell their equity stake.
“There shall be a lock-in-period for sale of equity of a person whose share capital is 10 per cent or more in the UAS licencee company on the effective date of UAS licence and whose net-worth has been taken into consideration for determining the eligibility for grant of UAS licence, till completion of three years from the effective date of the UAS licence or till fulfillment of all the roll-out obligations under clause 34, whichever is earlier,” the Government said.
“In case of issue of fresh equity, within the lock-in period the declaration of dividend and/or special dividend shall be barred,” DoT said. “The provision of lock-in period shall not apply, in pursuance to enforcement of pledge by the lending financial institutions/bank in the event of defaults committed by the UAS licencee company.”
On 07.24.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Siddartha Behura, secretary of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) reportedly said that nationwide mobile number portability (MNP) could still be introduced before the end of 2009. MNP is presently due to be implemented in Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra and Gujarat, Calcutta, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka by September this year. The remainder of the country is due to gain access to the service by March 2010.
On 07.15.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has reportedly ruled out the option of setting up an independent regulator tasked specifically with the management of spectrum-related matters. Instead it is understood that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will continue to issue recommendations on such issues, and the Wireless Planning Council (WPC) will remain in place as the nodal agency responsible for planning, allocating and managing the spectrum given to operators.
The regulator has, however, said it plans to press for increased powers for the WPC, including the ability to relocate and withdraw spectrum. Trai argues that it, not the WPC, should be assigned the role of spectrum management, having previously said, ‘Due to cumbersome procedures, lack of automation, non-availability of data bases, lack of networking and unresponsive procedures, the present arrangement and practices of allocating spectrum being followed by WPC is unable to keep pace with the best international standards.’
On 07.14.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco) has reportedly increased its stake in new Indian mobile operator S-Tel from 36.9% to 42.7% following a USD38.8 million investment. According to a report, S-Tel won a legal challenge against the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), with the Delhi High Court ordering the regulator to grant the cellco licences to operate in 16 additional circles. In spite of the victory however, S-Tel has indicated it will likely focus its efforts on rolling out in the north east of the country.
On 07.13.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: According to a media report, it is indicated that launch of MNP in a phased manner is not possible. Apart from this, there are problems in call routing and charging in the MNP scenario, no pan-India readiness for MNP; and difficult to meet the government set deadline for implementing MNP, report said. There is also a technical clash between location routing numbers (LRNs) and STD codes in at least 200 sites. However, Department of Telecom (DoT) has asked all service providers to stick to the timeline.
On 07.13.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Department of Telecom has decided to seek TRAI’s view before taking a call whether the radio waves should be auctioned to operators. A senior DoT official said the report would be sent to TRAI to give its comment on the host of suggestions that the Kumar panel has given in the report. Prominent among the recommendations is the one on whether 2G spectrum should be auctioned for both new and existing players.
For the existing players, the report suggests that spectrum be auctioned beyond 6.2 Mhz. For new players, spectrum and the licence are delinked so that for 4.4 Mhz of start-up spectrum they also have to go through auction.
2G spectrum matters only after the 3G spectrum auction issues are settled. In the interim, DoT has referred the committee report to TRAI for its views. The report calls for spectrum trading between operators with the government getting its share in such trades. This, it felt, would lead to consolidation in the telecom space with more mergers and acquisitions.
As of now, there is a freeze on spectrum allocation as no spectrum beyond the start-up 4.4 MHz is being allotted.