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Even before the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has taken its first steps towards allowing connectivity between PCs and phones, telecom operators and Internet service providers (ISPs) are locking horns over the issue. In separate communications to the regulator, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications have stated that if voice over Internet protocol—or, VoIP, which basically means using the Internet for telephone calls—is allowed, ISPs should be asked to migrate to the unified access service licence (UASL) regime. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has gone even further to state that PC-to-phone calls should be disallowed, as it would destroy the national long-distance structure. At stake is the wide difference in licence fees paid by telecom service providers and ISPs. The former pays Rs 1,650 crore for a pan-India licence fee, while ISPs pay a token fee of Re 1. Currently, Internet telephony is allowed but only from PC to PC, for which ISPs pay 6% of their adjusted gross revenue.

Tags: telephony, VoIP, TRAI, DoT, BSNL, UASL on 2008-06-25 -All Annotations (0) -About

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The state-owned China Radio International (CRI) broadcasts an hour-long programme in Tamil every evening from its studios in western Beijing and has over the years built up an avid fan club of listeners among the Tamil speaking populations of Sri Lanka and South East Asia, but most specially Tamil Nadu itself. The radio station was first established in 1941 with the aim of broadcasting Chinese news and views to the world, in the language of the intended audience. Today CRI broadcasts 290 hours worth of programmes every day in 43 languages, including four Indian languages: Tamil, Hindi, Bengali and Urdu. All four South Asian language departments are housed on the twelfth floor of the broadcaster’s headquarters, but what’s remarkable about the Tamil service in particular is the volume of letters sent in by its audience. Last year the Tamil department received a staggering 530,000 letters from listeners, some one-fourth of the total number of letters received by all 43 language services of CRI

Tags: radio, china, telephony, tamil, circulation on 2008-06-25 -All Annotations (0) -About

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Telecom companies can now start providing services without getting the key raw material— spectrum —from the government. Thanks to a recent clarification “subtly” made by the department of telecommunications (DoT), new telecom players like the realty major Unitech and Videocon-owned, Datacom, which have been granted licences but no spectrum, can start commercial operations by getting into intra-circle roaming pacts with existing operators. The clarification dated June 12 basically allows operators to enter into mutual commercial agreements for intra-service roaming facilities with other licensed operators. With this, analysts said, the new operators without spectrum could put up mobile switching centres (MSCs) and get into pacts with existing operators for spectrum. This way, these operators can start operations, that too, without building any network by just trading in spectrum, which is otherwise not permissible. This will also ensure them a good valuation without investing much in creating any infrastructure.

Tags: spectrum, TRAI, DoT, mobile switching centres, licenses, mobile, telephony on 2008-06-25 -All Annotations (0) -About

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In order to determine the appropriate sample size that can reflect the TV viewership data with an adequate accuracy, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is evaluating the option of roping in the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) or Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), both of which fall under the ambit of ministry of statistics and programme implementation. Recently, the existing market benchmarks of sample size (6,000 to 8,000) came under the scanner of information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry. The ministry held the view that a total of 6,000 to 7,000 peoplemetre installed only in urban locations is inadequate to represent 122 million TV households in the country and only reflects skewed TV viewership reality. Subsequently, the Centre referred the matter to the regulatory body. Trai’s recommendation on the issue is awaited. According to a Trai official, “Arriving at a standard sample size is not an easy exercise. What is clear is that the current sample size is inadequate. But one cannot simply inflate the current figure, 6,000 to 60,000 or 6 lakh to zero on an accurate sample size. There are serious cost implications (cost involved in the data-collection) feasibility factors and profitability of the business of TRP involved. Therefore we are contemplating whether an expert body like NSSO or ministry of statistics can be engaged in the task.”

Tags: TRAI, trojans, television, telephony, audience on 2008-06-25 -All Annotations (0) -About

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With an addition of 6.27 million subscribers in the month of May, the total GSM subscriber base climbed up to 205 million users. However, there was a decline in the total number of subscribers added in comparison to April, with a decline of 177,000. Bharti Airtel Ltd, the country’s largest mobile service provider leads the pack with the highest number of additions of 2.4 million subscribers, taking the company’s subscriber base up-to 66.8 million. With these figures the company has a market share of 32.52%. Vodafone Essar with a market share of 23.10% added 1.68 million subscribers to its kitty, with which the company’s user base increased to 47.4 million at the end of May.

Tags: GSM, mobile, telephony, airtel, subscriptions, statistics on 2008-06-13 -All Annotations (0) -About

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The much-awaited guidelines for the 3G policy will be out this month, assured Communications Minister Andimuthu Raja today. Speaking on the sidelines of a conference, the minister said, "It has been delayed for some time. I will ensure that the policy is out by the 30th of June." "I met both the finance secretary and the telecom secretary today. The guidelines for 3G, spectrum auction, as well as on participation of players, will be out this month," he added.

Tags: 3G, telephony, TRAI, DoT, FDI on 2008-06-13 -All Annotations (0) -About

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In what could be good news for foreign telecom companies wanting to invest in India, the Union Ministry of Law and Justice has suggested that the Communication Ministry may take the issue of following an open auction for third generation mobile services to a Group of Ministers if it wanted to overrule the views expressed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. While the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has expressed concerns against an open auction on the grounds that existing players were more prepared for 3G mobile services, the Communication Ministry is in favour of inviting bids from international players also. The Finance Ministry has also backed Communication Ministry on the grounds that an open auction will get more revenues for the Government. TRAI has, however, told the Government that such a decision cannot be taken legally without considering the views of the regulator.

Tags: telephony, TRAI, DoT, 3G, auction, foreign on 2008-06-13 -All Annotations (0) -About

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The telecom regulator’s move to review the spectrum pricing for wireless broadband services using technologies such as WiMax has divided the telecom industry. While the GSM operator’s lobby Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has pushed for parity between the price for third generation mobile and WiMax to keep the playing field level, others — including Reliance Communication and Intel — want the spectrum for WiMax to be priced lower to make broadband services more affordable. The outcome of this debate will have an impact on what consumers pay for wireless broadband services.

Tags: telephony, COAI, WiMax, 3G, TRAI, DoT, mobile on 2008-05-30 -All Annotations (0) -About

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The Department of Telecom (DoT) had another round of discussion with Research In Motion (RIM) in a bid to find a solution to the security concerns around Blackberry services. DoT had asked the company to come out with a solution that would enable Indian security agencies to monitor data being transmitted through Blackberry devices. RIM has already told DoT that it cannot give the codes to the device since it has been designed in such a way that it does not allow anyone, including RIM, to know the content of any email being sent through the device. RIM also said that setting up a local data centre in India would not help in addressing the security needs since the network design would not allow anyone to snoop into the system at any point of the transmission.

Tags: DoT, TRAI, telephony, RIM, blackberry, encryption on 2008-05-30 -All Annotations (0) -About

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In a relief to new operators Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on Wednesday refused to stay the allotment of spectrum. The TDSAT turned down the appeal of B.K. Modi-promoted Spice Communications which has pleaded that since tribunal would not be sitting for a month on account of summer vacation, it should stay allotment of spectrum till July 3, next date of hearing. Spice’s main contention is that if the spectrum allocation is not stopped then the re will not be enough left for them. T

Tags: TDSAT, TRAI, spectrum, allocation, mobile, telephony on 2008-05-29 -All Annotations (0) -About

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In a move that would improve the availability of cheaper international bandwidth in the country, the Telecom Commission, the apex policy making body of the Department of Telecom, has given its approval for allowing unlimited number of bandwidth resellers in the country. Bandwidth resellers are companies, which do not own any infrastructure, but buy capacity from large international long distance service providers like VSNL or AT&T and then resell it to consumers like business process outsourcing units. This could result in cheaper Internet services and international long distance calls. The move will benefit larger consumers of bandwidth such as ITeS companies, BPOs and Internet service providers who will be able to buy bandwidth from the resellers at much lower costs.

Tags: DoT, TRAI, telephony, broadband, internet on 2008-05-29 -All Annotations (0) -About

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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has cautioned the Department of Telecom against taking any decision on policy matters without consulting it. In a note written to Mr Siddarthha Behura, Secretary, Department of Telecom; TRAI’s Chairman, Mr Nripendra Misra, said that the recommendations of the regulator is required according to existing laws and DoT should keep this in mind to avoid any legal complications. TRAI said that it had come to know that DoT was planning to amend licence term for unified access service and basic telecom providers.

Tags: TRAI, DoT, telephony, 3G, UAS on 2008-05-28 -All Annotations (0) -About

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Inability on part of the Canada-based firm Research In Motion (RIM), the vendor of ‘BlackBerry’ smartphones, to allow Indian security agencies to read messages or e-mails of its users is likely to further complicate matters, and could even lead to scrapping of BlackBerry services in the country. According to RIM: “The BlackBerry security architecture for enterprise customers is based on a symmetric key system whereby the customers create their own key and only the customer ever possesses a copy of his encryption key. “RIM does not possess a ‘master key,’ nor does any ‘back door’ exist in the system that would allow RIM or any third party to gain unauthorised access to the key or corporate data. “The BlackBerry security architecture for enterprise customers is purposefully designed to exclude the capability for RIM or any third party to read encrypted information under any circumstances. RIM would simply be unable to accommodate any request for a copy of a customer’s encryption key since at no time does RIM, or any wireless network operator, ever possess a copy of the key,” the company has said.

Tags: telephony, DoT, mobile, blackberry, RIM, encryption on 2008-05-28 -All Annotations (0) -About

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The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has called a meeting with operators on May 28 to discuss the allocation and pricing of 3G spectrum bands for launching new generation mobile phone services. Spectrum or radio waves in the bands 2.3-2.4 GHz, 2.5-2.69 GHz, and 3.3-3.6 GHz were not available for allocation earlier. Therefore, when the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) issued recommendation for 3G spectrum allocation and pricing in 2006, it had decided that allocations of spectrum in these bands will be decided as and when these were made available.

Tags: telephony, spectrum, TRAI, DoT, mobile, 3G on 2008-05-27 -All Annotations (0) -About

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The Government may want more revenues from telecom operators, but large integrated players including Bharti Airtel have found a smart way to save at least Rs 1,000 crore a year in the form of licence fee revenue share. In the current licence fee regime, telecom companies providing the whole gamut of services, including long distance telephony, are required to pay only 6 per cent of the annual revenues from long distance services compared to a total levy of 12 per cent for mobile services. These companies are saving on the net outgo to the Government by loading higher revenue component to their long distance licence.

Tags: telephony, tax, long-distance, airtel on 2008-05-22 -All Annotations (0) -About

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A difference of opinion has cropped up between the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), which has sought additional rollout obligations from dual-technology players.

Tags: DoT, TRAI, ADC, dual-technology, telephony, rollout-obligations, UASL on 2008-05-22 -All Annotations (0) -About

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Arasu Cable TV Corporation Ltd, a Government of Tamil Nadu undertaking, has set the ball rolling for the distribution of cable TV signals in the State by calling for expression of interest (EoI) from those in the TV signals distribution business. The corporation has sought EoI from cable operators/link operators/MSOs in Tamil Nadu for taking TV signals from the Digital Head Ends (DHE) being established in different cities in the State by it.

Tags: television, telephony, Arasu, tamil-nadu, public-service-broadcasting on 2008-05-22 -All Annotations (0) -About

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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has started monitoring changes in the contractual agreements of operators to ensure that they do not adversely impact the annual licence fee earned by the government and follow licence conditions. The government gets part of the revenue earned by operators as licence fee under the revenue-sharing agreement with operators. The regulator is currently monitoring the restructuring deals of at least three key companies — Bharti Airtel's outsourcing agreements, Reliance Communications' dual company structure, and Tata Teleservices' contract with Virgin Mobile. The regulator is also planning to closely look at the new trend of operators spinning off their tower businesses and assets into separate companies.

Tags: TRAI, telephony, outsourcing, revenue, license, DoT on 2008-05-20 -All Annotations (0) -About

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In a major deviation from its earlier stand, government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has allowed telecom vendors who do not have manufacturing facilities in India to participate in its tender for 93 million GSM lines. This will make Chinese major Huawei eligible for bidding in the world’s largest telecom tender. The size of the order for supplying equipment and installing the GSM network is likely to be as high as Rs 40,000 crore, if one goes by the lowest bids submitted by Ericsson in the last tender. The technical conditions have been framed in such a way that another Chinese major, ZTE, too will be able to qualify for the tender. It will be the first GSM tender in which any Chinese telecom vendor will participate without the threat of being disqualified. The tender conditions envisage, “The eligible bidder company or its parent company shall be a manufacturer of GSM EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN). Such a bidder company shall also be registered in India to carry out telecom related activity.”

Tags: telephony, BSNL, tenders, China, GSM, mobile, manufacturing on 2008-05-20 -All Annotations (0) -About

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At some point the men and women running creative businesses start believing that their target audience is ‘people like us.' This is happening to Hindi cinema. It seems to to be blinded by the Rs 150 an Indian multiplex viewer pays and $7-12 the overseas one does for a ticket. As a result, it is losing out on swathes of the domestic market for films in B- & C-class towns. Not too many of the big hits in 2007, except perhaps for Chak De India! have worked across Hindi-speaking markets. Bheja Fry or Partner, some of the other big Hindi hits, just don't register with small town audiences. Sreedhar Pillai, an expert on the south Indian film business, confirms that this is true for Tamil films as well. If a film works in Chennai, Malaysia, Singapore and (these days) Japan, production companies are not interested in the rest of the state.

Tags: cinema, television, telephony, bhojpuri, multiplexes, brand-equity, bollywood, small-town, theatres on 2008-05-20 -All Annotations (0) -About

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