DoT plans to penalize telcos over network launch delays

On 11.29.10, In Mobile, By Editor

The department of telecom is planning to penalize the new telcos who haven’t met their service launch obligations. The government is considering a fine of US$29.46 million on older telecom players such as Bharti, Reliance Communications and Aircel. The penalty imposed on new players is likely to be much higher.

According to sources, Department of Telecom (DoT) may decide on a report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that recommended the cancellation of about 69 licenses over non-fulfillment of roll-out obligations this week.

The allegations of irregularities in the allocation of 2G spectrum, which are estimated to have caused a revenue loss of over US$38.41 billion to the exchequer as per the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, continue to disrupt Parliament proceedings, even as the case is probed by various agencies including the CBI, CVC and Enforcement Directorate.

The Telecom Ministry had planned imposing a penalty of US$104.11 million which was later reduced to US$29.59 million against old operators, including Bharti Airtel, Tata Teleservices, RCOM, Aircel and others.

As per the revised figures, Bharti Airtel will face a penalty of US$6.76 million, while the Tata (CDMA operations) are likely to be asked to be paid liquidated damages of over US$8.73 million.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has also asked its Telecom Enforcement Resource Monitoring (TERM) cell to collect data on the status of network roll-out by individual operators through field surveys.

According to officials, this is done by the DoT on its own from time-to-time to ensure that the roll-out of services takes place as per the license terms and conditions for effective utilisation of spectrum.

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Telcos want MNP to be launched on Jan 20 (India)

On 11.16.10, In Mobile, By Editor

The Haryana mobile customers may enjoy MNP from November 25 but the telecom operators are demanding a shift in MNP date up till January 20.

DoT is determined that MNP should be launched by December 20, while GSM mobile players are seeking to postpone the date by a month to January 20.

At their last meeting with DoT, some GSM companies expressed their inability to implement MNP by the deadline set by the department as they are yet not ready.

A senior DoT official confirmed that some GSM companies had sought postponement of the launch date to January 20.

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Operators must adjust networks to cope with cloud services uptake – BT

On 10.29.10, In Mobile, By Editor

BT has warned that mainstream uptake of cloud services by enterprises and consumers could prove to be a headache for telcos that neglect to prepare their networks.

According to Rob Thomas, director of product solutions for BT 21CN, if you take the iPhone and the App Store it’s a great service but it’s a very hungry device in terms of network usage, even just from a signaling point of view.

Thomas pointed out during a keynote presentation at Broadband World Forum in Paris that Apple’s App Store has seen 3 billion apps downloaded, while song downloads from iTunes have topped 10 billion. Meanwhile Facebook’s 500 million members are spending 700 billion minutes per month sharing information, pictures and video content.

Thomas cited a survey carried out by Gartner that showed that 15% of enterprises have already implemented some form of cloud service; 31% are currently implementing cloud services, while a further 15% are planning to.

According to Thomas, Cloud services have got the potential to be very problematic for ISPs, connectivity providers and mobile operators. One of the issues you need to address is how you tune that network to optimize it for cloud services?

According to him, the answer lies in closer collaboration with cloud application developers. You need to work closely with them to ensure that you end up with network friendly services.

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72 of 122 new 2G licenses are issued to disqualified telcos: CAG (India)

On 10.13.10, In Mobile, By Editor

As per the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) , 72 out of 122 new 2G spectrum licenses issued by Telecom Minister A Raja in January, 2008, were awarded to companies that did not meet the eligibility criteria.

According to the government auditor, Datacom Solution, STel, the Unitech Group of companies and Allianz Infratech, among others, were issued licenses in 2008 even though they did not meet the eligibility criteria prescribed by the DoT at the time of application.

If sources are to be believed, the Telecom Ministry may issue show cause notices to new operators, including STel, Unitech Wireless and Datacom.

The DoT has asked for access to the documents available with the auditor for further investigation into the case and to issue a show cause notice for further action, including termination of the licenses awarded to the ineligible telcos.

If the DoT chooses to terminate the licenses, it would result in encashment of guarantees worth US$59.15 million, including financial bank guarantees worth US$42.25 million and performance bank guarantees worth US$16.90 million.

As per an internal CAG note, as indicated by DoT’s own stipulation, none of these companies were eligible to apply for the grant of unified access service (UAS) licenses on the date that they submitted their applications in DoT. DoT chose not to abide by its own guidelines and issued 122 licenses without detailed verification of the documents submitted by the applicants.

According to the audit body, the applications should have been rejected in the first place.

According to sources, the DoT is yet to respond to the CAG’s latest report, which also observed that the Telecom Ministry did not consider the Law and Finance Ministry’s views on allotment of 2G spectrum.

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T-Mobile, Verizon Lead as Airwaves Auction Reaches $10 Billion

On 08.15.06, In Mobile, By Editor

Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) — T-Mobile USA Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. made the highest offers for U.S. airwaves at a government auction, driving the bidding past $10 billion. T-Mobile, the fourth-biggest
U.S. mobile-phone company, offered $3.05 billion for 77 licenses, according to preliminary results released today by the Federal Communications Commission. Verizon, owner of the second-largest
U.S. wireless provider, offered $2.8 billion for four licenses, including $1.34 billion for the biggest in the northeastern region. Through 20 rounds of the auction, telephone companies have been the most aggressive in trying to expand their coverage to offer more customers high-speed services. The bids are preliminary and the FCC will hold more rounds tomorrow, giving other companies a chance to top today’s offers. The process may last weeks before winners are announced.

“In the end it comes down to willingness to spend,” said Jeff Heynen, an analyst covering broadband and Internet television at Infonetics Research in
Raleigh, North Carolina. “Telcos are the only guys that have the funds to be able to do that.” A joint venture between EchoStar Communications Corp. and DirecTV Group Inc., the two largest
U.S. satellite-television companies, dropped out of the running. The auction of the 1,122 spectrum licenses, which reached $10.3 billion today, may raise as much as $15 billion, making it the FCC’s second-most lucrative sale, according to government projections. Widening, Deepening T-Mobile, a unit of Bonn-based Deutsche Telekom AG, is aiming to catch up with larger rivals Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless LLC in offering videos and games.

New York-based Verizon wants more users for services such as mobile video and has leading bids in the
Great Lakes and southeastern regions. “For T-Mobile it’s widening and for Verizon it’s deepening,” Heynen said. T-Mobile, owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, is making its biggest bids in the western, northeastern and central regions. SpectrumCo LLC, a partnership that includes Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc., and Sprint Nextel Corp., was the third- biggest bidder, offering $1.54 billion for 79 licenses. “Cable companies as expected are being somewhat restrained and we view their participation as experimental,” said Aryeh Bourkoff, an analyst at UBS AG in
New York. Shares of Verizon fell 16 cents to $34.23 in composite trading today on the New York Stock Exchange. Deutsche Telekom shares rose 16 cents to 11.21 euros in
Germany. EchoStar, located in
Englewood, Colorado, added 15 cents to $33.11, and El Segundo, California-based DirecTV gained 27 cents to $18.06.

Source : Bloomberg

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