communication

The universal service obligation fund is related to ____]Telecommunication








TELECOM PEGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA (TRAI) WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1997 TO REGULATE TELECOMMUNICATION SERVICES AND PROVIDE LEVEL PLAYING FIELD TO ALL PLAYERS. TRAI  CONTINUOUSLY REVIEW THE TRAIFF STRUCTURE TO FURTHER TRAIFF REBALANCING. PM LAUNCHED A PILOT SCHEME---GRAMEEN SANCHAR SEWAK (GSS) IN DECEMBER 2002





VSNL WAS PRIVATISED IN 2002 AS A STRAGETIC SALE WITH 25 % OF GOVT EQUITY BEING BOUGHT BY PANATONE FINVEST LIMITED(TATA). GOVT STILL HOLDS 26 % EQUITY IN VSNL.
















IT Investment Region (ITIR) to come up in Bangalore, Karnataka
India’s first IT Investment Region (ITIR) for knowledge-based industries, including software and hardware firms with
entire supply chain, to come up in Bangalore. The high-powered committee of the Ministry of Communications and
Information Technology has sanctioned the ITIR proposal from Karnataka and forwarded it to the Union Cabinet for
clearance, which is expected soon.
 Proposed to pull in global investments to the tune of Rs 2 trillion and create a million direct jobs over the next 10
years.
 To be built under the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model with joint investment by the central and state
governments.
Current Affairs Published on www.gktoday.in from January 1, 2012 to
September 10, 2012
 The knowledge park will be a self-sustainable integrated investment region for setting up software firms, back
offices
 Will have a hardware park for electronics cluster, including chip designing and manufacturing units, with world
class infrastructure facilities.
 Will also have a residential township, an airstrip, high-speed rail network, shopping plaza, hospitals, schools and
recreational facilities for the communities living there.
 Companies in the region will be entitled to tax benefits and other incentives akin to the SEZ policy by the central
government.
Two other States which have also proposed for a similar proposal in their regions:
 Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu






TRAI issues new regulations for mobile banking
The TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India,) issued the fresh regulations for mobile banking in order to ascertain
quicker and reliable communication for banking via mobile phones. TRAI held that the mobile companies will have to
enable banks to complete a transaction within 10 seconds under the new rules.
Telecom companies have to give banks and customers the option to transact using either:
 SMS, or
 IVR (Interactive Voice Response), or
 USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data)
The service providers can also optionally facilitate the bank to use WAP or SIM Application Toolkit (STK).
All the operators are already using these platforms and hence do not have to make additional investments.
The response time for delivery of messages for mobile banking services generated by the customer or the bank will be
within the prescribed time-frame of:
a) Less than 10 seconds for SMS, IVR, WAP and STK
b) Less than 2 seconds for USSD
Objective of this move: The regulations are directed at ascertaining that mobile operators offer good services to banks
that launch Mobile Banking Services.
What are USSD, IVR, STK… ?
Read the rest of this entry »
April 19, 2012
TRAI issues recommendations on Exit Policy for telecom licences
The TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) issued recommendations on Exit Policy for various telecom licences.
The regulator held that at the moment there is no need for a separate Exit Policy for all types of licences and the entry
fee paid by the licensees will continue to be non-refundable as per their license terms and conditions. The current
conditions in several licences with regard to their surrender shall continue to be applicable and the licensee can
surrender its licence by giving at least 60 days notice, 30 days in case of Internet Service Provider (ISP) licence.
On February 2, 2012, the Supreme Court had ordered cancellation of Unified Access Services (UAS) licences given on
and after January 10, 2008. On 26th March 2012, in view of the judgment, s of the stakeholders on pre-consultation
paper, and its own analysis, TRAI issued a draft response paper on Exit Policy for several telecom licences.

















SC panel to recommend SIM card issuance procedure to Telcom firms
The Supreme Court has set up a joint expert panel to recommend the procedure for the telecom firms for properly
identifying the customers before issuing SIM cards to them. The panel comprising officials of the DoT (Department of
Telecommunications) and the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) will submit its report to the government
within 3 months.
 The Supreme Court passed the order on a plea by a petitioner seeking its direction to the government to frame
guidelines for telecom firms for issuing SIM cards.





TRAI set base price for spectrum auction
TRAI (Telecom regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) set Rs 3,622.18 Crore as the base or minimum price for
pan-India spectrum in the auction of radio waves which is to be held after the Supreme Court cancelling 122 licenses.
This minimum or base price (Rs 3,622.18 Crore) set is around 10 times higher than the floor price at which the former
Telecom Minister A. Raja had allocated spectrum and telecom licenses to companies like Unitech Wireless and Swan in
2008.
 TRAI has advocated a reserve price for 800 Mhz band (used for CDMA service) and 900 MHz band (used for GSM
service), at least two-times higher than that of minimum price for 1800 MHz band.
 The TRAI has also advocated that the auction keep out companies which already hold airwaves in excess of the
approved limit.






TRAI disconnects 22,769 connections
For sending unwanted telemarketing calls and SMS, 22,769 mobile connections were disconnected by TRAI (The
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India). The new regulations for unsolicited calls and
messages came into place on September 27, 2011. Since then, 36,156 subscribers have
been issued notices and 22,769 subscribers have been disconnected.













New TRAI guidelines on consumer grievance redressal

 TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) announces ‘Telecom Consumers Complaint Redressal Regulations,
2012″
 As per the new regulations, the telecom firms will have to set up complaint centres and web-based monitoring
systems for their customers within 45 days.
 The new rules come into force with immediate effect
 These regulations will apply to all service providers, including BSNL, MTNL and others providing basic telephone
service, unified access service, cellular mobile telephone service and Internet service.







Foreign telecom equipment serving critical networks must be
banned: Panel
Inter-ministerial panel in its report has recommended ban on use of foreign telecom equipments for all critical
networks. The panel supported 100% domestic sourcing of such equipments.
Objective: The move was taken due to apprehension over intrusion and control of vital cyber networks by foreign
countries like China which can compromise with the security of the country.
The report suggests that India should not use telecom apparatus from unfriendly countries. It highlights networks in
countries such as Taiwan, Japan and South Korea which also do not use telecom equipment for their critical networks
manufactured by countries hostile to them.
However it does not call for violation of WTO norms as preferential treatment in buying equipment will be given to
domestic manufacturers only for projects that have security implication for the country.
Projects recommended for complete domestic sourcing are:
 National Optic Fiber Network
 Network for spectrum
 Other defense communication networks
 National Knowledge Network
 All communication projects of all utility companies such as the Indian Railways, and oil, gas and power
companies.
The current preferential access policy directs that both state-owned and private phone, mobile and landline companies
buy up to 30 % of network equipment and other related infrastructure from domestic manufacturers. The new policy
wants these licensees to increase this up to “a minimum of 80 %” by 2020.



Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) settled to assign 700 Mhz spectrum for offering 4G telecom services.



private companies


Vodafone to pay $ 400 million more to Essar to buy 33% stake in the joint venture Vodafone-Essar
Vodafone: UK-based
Essar: Indian Partner for Vodafone
Vodafone to pay $ 400 million more to Essar in order to buy 33% stake in the joint
venture Vodafone-Essar
Vodafone's holding in the venture would increase to 75.35%
Vodafone would transfer 1.35% stake to an Indian investor to remain compliant
with the existing FDI norms in the telecom sector as the the existing FDI limit is
74%