25 million chinese handsets blocked in India
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 25 million Chinese-made mobile phones were banned by Indian authorities on Tuesday due to the lack of International Mobile Equipment Identification or IMEI number.
Telecom ministry officials said that low quality Chinese phones don’t have this 15 digit number needed to trace calls after a government crackdown on the handsets. Subsequently, they have asked all the service providers to block services to 25 million cell phones as it poses security threats.
The IMEI number helps in the identification of the calls received and made on a phone. It also provides information on the manufacturer and the handset type. Generally, when the phones are first activated, they automatically register this number with service providers.
The ministry has given two week deadline to all the customers with such phones to switch to a valid handset. They can manually register their phone with their service provider and buy an IMEI for INR199 ($4).
COAI or the Cellular Operators Association of India said it was adhering to the telecom ministry orders but at the same time they wanted the deadline to be extended. However, their request has been declined and they are sticking to the present deadline.
GSM lobby agrees to Rs 2,000 cr entry fee for 3G spectrum
NEW DELHI: The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) today agreed an entry fee of Rs 2000 crore for 3G services among operators.The GSM lobby has finally agreed on the entry fee, which would be shared by all the national operators. Each operator will have to shell out around Rs 400 crore as entry fee for 3G spectrum.
3G services, a high-end valued added service, will allow operators to offer mobile broadband services like high speed internet, video, video streaming, audio among others.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday in a meeting with the cellular operators had presented the option of charging the spectrum on per Mega Hertz basis. The regulator expressed that the European model could be adopted by India through which Rs 85 crore could be charged per 1 Mhz per operator per service area (PSA).
According to the telecom regulation an operator is allocated a minimum of 5 MHz of spectrum to start its operations. According to TRAI’s proposed model each operator will have to shell out Rs 425 crore PSA, which received stiff opposition from the operators.
With the GSM operators agreeing on the entry fee, it seems that the debate on the pricing would lead to an understanding soon. However, Nripendra Misra, TRAI chief had said that they would submit the recommendations on the 3G policy by September 30.
Source- http://www.ciol.com
Technorati : 3G, GSM, India, Mobile, Trai
Ice Rocket : 3G, GSM, India, Mobile, Trai
