Telecom News

India to run out of phone numbers by next year

Times of India

It was inevitable, but it is now closer than ever. All the phone numbers series currently in use, like the ones beginning with 98 or 99, are quickly getting used up with the subscriber base in the country expected to reach a billion and beyond by next year. "There might be a serious problem if a new series of numbers are not brought in by the middle of next year. We are theoretically reaching the limit of existing number sets with a subscriber base of one billion," said Rajan Mathews, director general of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). The solution may lie in 11-digit phone numbers but Department of Telecom (DoT) is also looking at alternatives.

TRAI to regulate cable landing charges, amend existing laws

Economic Times

Telecom regulator TRAI will shortly fix cable landing charges by amending existing regulations in its bid to increase competition and reduce global bandwidth tariffs. TRAI will amend the International Telecoms Access to Essential Facilities at Cable Landing Stations Regulations, 2007, to specify the gamut of cable landing access charges, including access facilitation charges (AFCs), co-location charges and cancellation/restoration fees. A cable landing station is critical as it is the point where a global subsea cable system connects with a domestic telecom network. And AFCs are paid by international long distance operators (ILDOs) and Internet service providers (ISPs) to the owner of the cable landing station for leasing or buying international bandwidth in a subsea cable system.

Telecom operators file applications to bid for spectrum

Indian Express

Telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Telenor and Tata Teleservices (TTSL), have submitted applications for participating in the spectrum auction starting November 12. Sources at the Department of Telecommunications confirmed that Bharti Airtel has submitted application to bid for airwaves frequencies at pan-India level. Bharti Airtel, Idea and Vodafone have filed applications but did not disclose details of the application like number of telecom circles in which they will bid for airwaves frequencies and the spectrum band in which they will bid.

Bharti Airtel world's fourth largest operator: Report

Economic Times

Telecom major Bharti Airtel is the fourth largest mobile operator in the world with over 250 million connnections globally, according to analyst firm Wireless Intelligence. China Mobile continues to be at the top spot with 683.08 million connections, followed by Vodafone Group (386.88 million) and America Movil Group (251.83 million). Bharti Airtel (250.04) and Telefonica Group (243.51) are at fourth and fifth position, respectively, Wireless Intelligence said in its 'Mobile operator worldwide group global ranking by connections (Q2, 2012)'.

 

Finance Minister, DoT didn't approach Cabinet on 2G pricing: former Cabinet Secretary

Daily News & Analysis

Though the Finance Ministry and the Telecom Department (DoT) held different opinions on the issue of pricing of 2G spectrum, neither approached the Union Cabinet for a decision, a former Cabinet Secretary has told the JPC looking into the radiowave scam. "In this case, there was no reference to a dispute between the two departments requiring intervention of the Cabinet. The desire for a Cabinet decision was expressed by neither department. The matter was also not taken up by either department for a meeting of the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) at any stage," K M Chandrasekhar told the JPC in a written submission.

Can't force operators to give coverage in sea: DoT to Defence

Economic Times

The government cannot force mobile operators to go beyond their roll-out obligation and give phone coverage to fishermen venturing into the deep sea, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has informed the Naval authorities. DoT has responded to the proposal of Directorate of Naval Signals, which suggested that the mobile operators be asked to extend seamless coverage of 15-20 nautical miles off the coasts. The objective of the proposal of the Defence establishment, as discussed in the recent meeting of the naval commanders, was to enable fishermen to remain in contact with their families when at sea.

Auction all spectrum without giving any free, don't charge retrospectively

Economic Times

The government must develop a telecom policy that is simple and the main goal of which is to provide affordable communication and data services to all Indians, which would boost economic efficiency and growth and yield far greater revenue than spectrum sale proceeds ever can. The Supreme Court has asked for licences to be auctioned, but little else. The government should set a reasonably low reserve price for these auctions, not the high Rs 14,000 crore for 5 megahertz (MHz) that it has decided on. TRAI had recommended huge floor prices before the Supreme Court clarified that revenue maximisation need not be a consideration. Incumbents will also have to pay for spectrum at prices linked to auction-discovered rates. However, the rules determined for how much incumbents will have to pay and in what way are way too complicated, and seem to reflect a desire to balance the demands of various lobbies, rather than sense per se.

Maveric Systems forays into telecom sector

Times of India

Software testing company Maveric Systems will be hiring 200 more people this fiscal to foray into telecom and expanding to Dubai, a top company official said on Friday, last. The Chennai-based Rs.88 crore company is an independent software testing company mainly focussed on banking, financial services and the insurance (BFSI) domains with 780 employees. "Based on our customer demand we have decided to go up in the software testing value chain by partnering with our clients across the entire IT (information technology) adoption life cycle," Ranga Reddy, co-founder and CEO of Maveric Systems said.

TDSAT allows MSOs to charge placement fee

Economic Times

Ahead of roll out of cable TV digitisation, sectoral tribunal TDSAT has upheld certain broadcast regulatory clauses allowing customers to select a combination of 100 free-to-air channels for basic plan. The tribunal largely consented with the tariff order and regulation of TRAI. It also gave a go ahead to the TRAI's revenue sharing mechanism between the Local/Area cable operator and the Multi-System Operators. The tribunal also set aside some restriction put on MSOs by the Telecom Regulatory Authority on placement fee, number of channels and carriage fee.

  Trends                    

Operators like Sistema, Aircel, RCom see no business case in buying airwaves at high price: Industry bodies

Economic Times

Terming the high reserve price as the reason for firms like Reliance Industries, Sistema, Aircel and RCom staying away from the spectrum auction, telecom industry bodies today said operators see no "business case" in buying airwaves at such a high price. "We have always maintained that there will be muted demand for the auction process as the reserve price set by the government is too high," GSM industry body COAI Director General Rajan Mathews said.

                    

Mobile Web Trends 2012

 51Degrees.mobi

This whitepaper provides an insight into current web usage trends by mobile devices.

TRAI- A woeful downslide (Premium) - View Free Sample

The Indian telecom sector's current situation merits a more progressive line of thinking from the regulator to ensure that the sector continues to progress on the government's stated agenda of inclusion. But TRAI's recommendations for 2G auctions and spectrum reforming would actually end up achieving more of the opposite. In July 2012, India's mobile GSM subscriber base reached 679.05 million from just over 1 million in 1998 through just voice services for the most part. And by that time, CDMA subscriptions had reached around 230 million (AUSPI). This stupendous growth in subscriptions has been a revelation of sorts globally, along with the surprisingly low price points at which Indian telecom players are providing these services. From an ARPU of Rs.362/user/month for GSM players in December 2005, the figure has declined to Rs.100/user/month in March 2011 as per a PwC report. The report further highlights that India's ARPUs are around 3 and 10 times lower than developing and developed countries respectively on an average. However, the recent trends point to trouble in paradise. For a sector that is already struggling with low ARPUs, slowing penetration and high debt, the last straw would really be a lack of appreciation of its achievements and insensitivity towards its pressing issues.