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Mobile banking guidelines likely in a fortnight
As Indian banks gear up to offer mobile banking as the next step in payment systems, they also need to address customer concerns with regard to security.
The dependence of banks on mobile payment service providers would place the knowledge of customers in public domain. Therefore, banks would need to take adequate risk control measures to manage such risks and protect sensitive customer data.
This was the opinion shared by speakers at a seminar on mobile banking organised by Banknet here on Tuesday.
With mobile subscriber base touching 300 million in India, banks are increasingly exploring ways to adopt mobile banking practices.
TCIL stake sale in Hexacom gets DoT nod; Bharti may pick up 30% stake
The Department of Telecom has given its approval to divesting the 30 per cent stake held by Telecommunications Consultant of India Ltd in Bharti Hexacom, a company which offers mobile services in Rajasthan.
The stake sale has been hanging in the balance for more than three years. The Government had so far taken a stance not to divest State-owned TCIL’s stake. However, with the Left withdrawing its support, political equation at the Centre has changed allowing the Government to move ahead with its divestment plans.
The decision to approve the stake sale was taken at a meeting of the Telecom Commission, the highest authority in DoT, on August 21. DoT will now take the proposal to the Union Cabinet for approval.
If TCIL sells its stake, Bharti Airtel will have the first right of refusal. Bharti had earlier expressed interest in acquiring the stake but could not do so without Government approval. Bharti already owns about 70 per cent stake in Hexacom after it had bought out majority shares from Shyam Telecom. Bharti had paid about Rs 430 crore for buying out Shyam’s stake in 2004.
COAI threatens to sue DIAL
The Cellular Operators Association of India has threatened legal action against Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd for floating a tender seeking bids for setting up and running mobile phone antenna systems at the airport, COAI Director General TV Ramachandran said on Tuesday.
“We have been informed that under the system, you intend that all service providers terminate their services at central facility called Common Facilities Distribution building from where the signals shall be carried on your network under the tender,” COAI said in its notice to DIAL.
The DIAL tender had sought bids for setting up the mobile phone antenna systems for the new passenger terminal building No 3 and associated buildings.
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The DIAL tender had sought bids for setting up the mobile phone antenna systems for the new passenger terminal building No 3 and associated buildings.
The COAI has contended that only companies given licences by the Department of Telecommunications have the right to operate any kind of telecommunication service.
Mobile growth hits new peak; 9.22 m wireless users in July
Mobile subscriber base in the country is growing at such a fast pace that operators are breaking the record for net additions almost every second month.
In July, mobile operators, both GSM (global system for mobile communications) and CDMA (code division multiple access) together, added 9.22 million subscribers, which is the highest ever additions in a single month till now. The previous best was 8.94 million in June.
New telecom players to get spectrum in 4 more circles
Within days of the Delhi High Court giving a clean chit to the Union government in the spectrum issue, the Department of Telecom (DoT) is all set to allocate start-up spectrum to new players in four more circles.
DoT has proposed to allocate spectrum in four more circles — Maharashtra, Mumbai, Kolkata and Madhya Pradesh — to players, including Datacom, promoted by Mahendra Nahata of HFCL, realty major Unitech, BPL-led Loop Telecom, Swan Telecom and Tata Teleservice.
DoT has already alloted start-up spectrum in six circles — Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.
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Within days of the Delhi High Court giving a clean chit to the Union government in the spectrum issue, the Department of Telecom (DoT) is all set to allocate start-up spectrum to new players in four more circles.
DoT has proposed to allocate spectrum in four more circles — Maharashtra, Mumbai, Kolkata and Madhya Pradesh — to players, including Datacom, promoted by Mahendra Nahata of HFCL, realty major Unitech, BPL-led Loop Telecom, Swan Telecom and Tata Teleservice.
DoT has already alloted start-up spectrum in six circles — Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.
DoT rejects TRAI’s call for 3G policy review
In a move that would keep the roll out of third generation services on track, the Department of Telecom has rejected telecom regulator’s call to review some parts of the recently announced third generation policy.
The TRAI had sought a review on several issues in the policy – the key one being DoT’s decision to allocate spectrum to CDMA players based on subscriber numbers. The regulator had also asked the Government to refer the issue of allowing new and foreign players back to TRAI so that it can suggest the terms and conditions of the new licence category.
Rejecting TRAI’s view on foreign players, an internal DoT note said, “ The unified access licence are authorised to provide triple play – voice, data and video without any limit on speed of data. 3G service providers are not new category of licensees and they shall be offering 3G services under terms & conditions of the UASL licence. Therefore, the provision of the TRAI ACT 1997 is not applicable in this situation.”
After 3G, Trai differs with DoT on mobile number portability too
In yet another instance of disagreement with policymakers, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has questioned the Department of Telecommunication’s (DoT’s) decision to divide the country into two zones instead of one as recommended by the telecom regulator for mobile number portability (MNP) facility.
DoT invites bids to conduct 3G spectrum auction
Amid its differences with the Ministry of Finance, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) today started the process for 3G mobile services and invited bids from Indian and foreign companies to conduct the auctioning of spectrum in 22 telecom service areas.
Issuing the Request for Proposal (RFP), the DoT has convened a pre-bid conference on August 27 and will open the financial bids, of those who qualify technically and meet all the criteria for selection, on September 19.
According to the eligibility criteria, the bidder shall not have any equity directly or indirectly in any telecom or Internet service provider (ISP) in India. Similarly, any telecom company or ISP shall not have any stake in the bidder company.
DoT rejects Amar Singh’s spectrum pricing formula
The Department of Telecom (DoT) has rejected the Samajwadi Party leader Mr Amar Singh’s formula for levying a charge on GSM-based mobile operators with excess spectrum over 6.2 Mhz.
DoT has instead suggested its own method of imposing the one-time charge
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The Department of Telecom (DoT) has rejected the Samajwadi Party leader Mr Amar Singh’s formula for levying a charge on GSM-based mobile operators with excess spectrum over 6.2 Mhz.
DoT has instead suggested its own method of imposing the one-time charge at the rate of Rs 266 crore for each unit of spectrum beyond 6.2 Mhz, which is the maximum quantum of start-up spectrum specified in the licence agreement.
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Mr Singh had proposed a formula whereby existing GSM players would have had to pay Rs 1,312 crore for each unit of spectrum beyond 6.2 Mhz. The basic assumption for this proposal was that the mobile operator’s licence agreement does not specify allocation of more than 6.2 Mhz.
RCom links: TRAI, GSM players stand-off continues
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has once again rejected GSM operators’ stand on offering links to Reliance Communication and has issued a fresh deadline of August 21 for complying with its orders.
The telecom regulator has earlier asked
New telecom operators to pull down user revenue
The new telecom licensees, which are planning to start operations in rural and semi-urban sectors, are likely to end up earning from only entry-level customers. This, experts say, will bring down the industry’s average revenue per user (ARPU), which is us
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The new telecom licensees, which are planning to start operations in rural and semi-urban sectors, are likely to end up earning from only entry-level customers. This, experts say, will bring down the industry’s average revenue per user (ARPU), which is used to measure a telecom company’s financial strength.
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Most new players are expected to start operations with an ARPU of as low as Rs 100 per month. This is almost one-third the existing ARPU (for both pre- and post-paid customers) of around Rs 280 per month.
The new players, including Videocon-controlled Datacom Solutions, Unitech, Shyam Sistema, Swam Telecom, STel and Essar Group firm Loop Telecom, are expected to start operations by the end of this year. Also, existing GSM operators like Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices Ltd and Reliance Communications are looking at expanding into new circles.
Entertainment drives mobile internet growth in BRIC countries
Entertainment-themed websites are the most popular with mobile Internet users in the growing Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) mobile markets, says a new research report from The Nielsen company.
Entertainment, gaming and music websites rank among t
Financial Express : Spectrum not a barrier for new players
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.
Financial Express : GSM subscriber base climbs to 205 million
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.
Telecom players divided over WiMax spectrum pricing
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.
TDSAT declines to stay spectrum allocation
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
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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.
Licensing proposed for telecom content providers - IndianExpress.Com
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today initiated a move to bring value added service (VAS) providers under a licensing regime. Ring tones, video clippings, games and SMS-based services are value-added services.
In a consultation paper released today, the regulator has sought industry’s views on “need to bring content provider/aggregators called Value Added Service Providers (VASPs) under the licensing regime.”
In India, the revenue from mobile VAS is anywhere between 10 per cent and 14 per cent of the total revenue. It is expected to cross 30 per cent of the mobile telecom service provider’s revenue in the next 5-7 years, say experts. Today, SMS constitutes major a portion of the VAS revenue. While entertainment services have become popular with consumers, there is scope for utility-based services such as location information, mobile commerce (M-Commerce) for transactions.
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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today initiated a move to bring value added service (VAS) providers under a licensing regime. Ring tones, video clippings, games and SMS-based services are value-added services.In a consultation paper released today, the regulator has sought industry’s views on “need to bring content provider/aggregators called Value Added Service Providers (VASPs) under the licensing regime.”
In India, the revenue from mobile VAS is anywhere between 10 per cent and 14 per cent of the total revenue. It is expected to cross 30 per cent of the mobile telecom service provider’s revenue in the next 5-7 years, say experts. Today, SMS constitutes major a portion of the VAS revenue. While entertainment services have become popular with consumers, there is scope for utility-based services such as location information, mobile commerce (M-Commerce) for transactions
Government may decide to scrap BlackBerry services
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.
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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.
DoT identifies new spectrum bands for 3G
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.
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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.
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</script>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.
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n the draft guidelines, the DoT has said 3G spectrum will be allocated in the 2.1 GHz band.
Recently, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has identified 2.3-2.4 GHz band also as International Mobile Technology (IMT) band. Spectrum in the band of 2.5-2.69 GHz was already identified as IMT-2000 band and the DoT, as per its recent guidelines on Broadband Wireless Access (BWA), is also considering allotment of spectrum in these bands. Currently, they are used for satellite services.
The use of 2.3-2.4 GHz and 2.5-2.69 GHz band offers significant scope for innovation with the potential for induction of new technologies, services, applications and devices.
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Chinese cos get to bid for BSNL’s 93 mn GSM lines - IndianExpress.Com
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.”
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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.
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Huawei was not eligible for participation in BSNL’s previous tender as it envisaged that the vendors should be Indian manufacturers. ZTE on its part submitted bids, which were rejected on technical grounds. Consequently, the field was left open to European and American players. US-based Motorola, too was, disqualified on technical grounds — leaving European majors Ericsson, Nokia, Siemens and Alcatel (through ITI) in the field.
The tender conditions also envisage that the bidder company must have experience of “planning, engineering, supply, installation and commissioning of at least a total of 20 million lines of GSM 900 and/ or GSM 1800 network comprising of GERAN, MSC, IN, SMSC, UMS, SGSN and GGSN. The experience sought can be from single or multiple networks.” Both the Chinese companies meet this condition, said sources.
In case of the last GSM tender floated by BSNL — in 2005 — it took almost two years from the date of inviting bids for the order to be ultimately offered to Ericsson. Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), the other qualifying bidder, did not accept the order.
When A Raja became Union communications minister following Dayanidhi Maran’s resignation, the first major decision he took was to reduce the quantity of the order by 50 per cent to 22.5 million lines. He also directed BSNL officials to reduce the price to $95 per line from the lowest quoted price of $107 per line.
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