140 number series for Telemarketeers

Customers may soon get a respite from pesky calls and SMSes as the DoT has cleared the '140' number series exclusively for landline phones of telemarketing companies to help consumers recognise such calls.

"DoT has cleared various issues, including that of security, to provide telemarketers the 140 number series for landline phones, which will be issued in a week," a senior DoT official said.

Telecom regulator Trai had earlier asked DoT (Department of Telecommunication) to allocate easily identifiable number series for telemarketing companies in order to put a check on unsolicited calls and SMSes.

While a series beginning with '140' was allocated to mobile services earlier, a separate identifiable number series will now be allocated for landline numbers.

Last December, Trai had come out with recommendations, 'The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010' to curb the menace of pesky calls and SMSes.

Since then, many deadlines have been missed for implementing the guidelines in view of the absence of an identified number series.

Trai has recommended a maximum fine of Rs 2.5 lakh on telemarketing companies for making unsolicited calls or SMSes to a consumer registered under the national customer preference register -- a modified version of Trai's 'Do Not Call Registry' list.

DoT had pointed out various technical, billing and security concerns in issuing a number series for landline services.

A call from a landline number can be identified based on a STD code -- the initial digits and then levels (digits following STD codes), which differs from exchange to exchange within a city.

It was contended that in case an identifiable series of '140' is used, it would impact the numbering system used at present for allocating new connections.

Adding 3-digit series to landline numbers will take total digits to 13 and to transmit such numbers on telecom networks, especially for caller line identification, BSNL and MTNL need to install new equipment in exchanges.

"All issues relating to security have also been cleared," the official said

I had nothing to do with 2G spectrum pricing: Pranab Mukherjee

Finance ministerPranab Mukherjee on Saturday rejected suggestions that he had anything to do with the pricing of 2G spectrum and hit out at those spreading "disinformation" on the issue.

In 2007 when he was external affairs minister, Mukherjee had been appointed Chairman of a Group of Ministers (GoM) on vacation of 3G spectrum which, he said, had nothing to do with 2G and its pricing.

The GoM was for vacation of spectrum by the defence and para-military forces and the communication ministry for mobile telephony and other issues. Pricing was not part of the mandate of the GoM, he said.

"In a nutshell, I had nothing to do with 2G," he said in an interview during which he deprecated attempts to spread "a lot of disinformation" on 2G targeting ministers

ICICI Bank takes 29.3% stake in GTL after share pledge

ICICI Bank has assumed a 29.3 percent stake in debt-laden telecoms infrastructure companyGTL after taking over shares pledged by its promoter, GTL said in a stock exchange statement on Friday.

The shares were acquired on Thursday, when GTL's stock ended at Rs 68.2 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. At that value, ICICI recovered about Rs 194 crore ($44 million) of the Rs 500 crore it is owed under loans to GTL, according to IFR, which first reported the transaction.

GTL said in a recent stock exchange filing that its promoter, Global Holding Corp, a unit of GTL Chairman Manoj Tirodkar's Global Group, had pledged 99.1 percent of its 52 percent stake in the company to lenders, according to IFR.

Syndicate Bank has a similar claim over the remaining pledged shares, a source told IFR.

GTL and another group company,GTL Infrastructure Ltd, are embroiled in a debt restructuring exercise with 25 lenders, IFR said. GTL has debts of about Rs 6,000 crore andGTL Infrastructure has debts of about Rs 11,000 crore, according to IFR.

In June, GTL and GTL Infrastructure appointed SBI Capital Markets to assess their financial situation and obligations, following a battering of their stock prices the previous week.

A spokesman for ICICI, India's second-largest bank, could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.

Earlier on Friday, Economic Times said rival telecom tower firm Viom Networks had made a Rs 7,500 crore ($1.69 billion) offer to buy GTL Infrastructure.

Later in the day, GTL Infrastructure said, "there are many aspirants who want to acquire Company's assets or partner with the Company," but said there had not been any formal discussions with Viom Networks.

Viom is a joint venture between telecoms carrier Tata Teleservices and tower firm Quippo.

Shares of GTL closed up by 10.15 percent at Rs 74.90 on Friday, and GTL Infrastructure closed up 9.09 percent at Rs 15 a share in a weak Mumbai market.

GTL shares have lost about 84 percent from their year peak last September.

Last year, GTL Infrastructure struck a deal to take over the telecom tower business ofReliance Communications, which would have created a company with an enterprise value of $11 billion. The deal collapsed when the companies failed to agree on terms.

A Raja drags the PM and the home minister into 2G scam

Jailed former telecom minister A Raja on Monday tried to drag the PM and the home minister into the quagmire of the 2G scam, saying they were party to the case.

The telcos' success in mopping up thousands of crores by offering fresh equity for licences and spectrum they got from Raja for Rs 1,600 crore forms the basis of the charge that the government lost revenue. It is also the main ground on which the CAG and the CBI had basedtheirestimatesof actualvalue of spectrum. Swan and Unitech between them raised Rs 7,100 crore for Uninor and Etisalat respectively in exchange for fresh equity.

The burden of Raja's argument in the court on Monday was that he was merely implementing a policy thatwasfoundtobekosherbyboth the PM and Chidambaram. The reference to the role of the PM and finance minister had been anticipated, with clear indications that Raja will ramp up his defence. BJP, again predictably, jumped on the opportunity, with party president Nitin Gadkari alleging that the entire government was involved in the scam. The charge was rebutted by Congress, as well as Union ministers - P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal - setting the stage for continuing confrontation inside Parliament during the monsoon session beginning next week.

Raja maintained he "only inherited and didn't create policy", pointing out that his predecessors, including those from the NDA government,didn'tauctionspectrum. "If policy pursued by me was wrong, then all former telecom ministers since 1993 should also be in jail with me," he said, opposing the framing of charges.

"As telecom minister,Arun Shourie distributed 26 licences whileDayanidhi Maran distributed 25 and I (Raja) distributed 122 licences. Numbers make no difference, however, it is to be noted that none of them auctioned spectrum," he said. Raja said, "If I am following the law; I am not liable to be prosecuted. In fact, I should be rewarded." Due to his policies cellphone call rates came down and they became affordable to even a 'rickshawala', Raja claimed.

Alleging that CBI had engaged in a "pick-and-choose policy", Raja questioned the logic behind booking certain corporates while leaving out others. "The CBI says that when DB Realty gave its shares (in Swan Telecom) to bring in money, it amounted to sale and so is the case with Unitech (Wireless). But when Tata Teleservices give its shares to bring in FDI, it, according to the CBI, does not amount to sale." Raja's counsel asked, "Who is a better businessman-SanjayChandraof Unitech or Ratan Tata of Tata Teleservices?Andthentheysaywekeptthem (Tata) out of Delhi circle." He also pointed out, "S-Tel also earned Rs 2,230 crore by diluting its shares but that was not considered as sale by the CBI."

"How could you give my custody to CBI for my further interrogation regarding Loop which was given 21 licences in the same batch as the other co-accused (Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless)." The former minister alleged the CBI was making this a case of multiple offences against him which would deprive him of the chance to take the legal remedy of bail as he would be trapped in one case or the other

India adds 8.6 million GSM subscribers in June-11

India's GSM subscriber base grew by 1.45 percent in June with the addition of 8.58 million mobile phone users, of whom Bharti Airtel alone signed up over 2.12 million customers, data shows.

The total number of GSM subscribers in the country crossed 598.78 million as against 590.2 million in May, according to the data released by Cellular Operators Association of India ( COAI )).

Bharti Airtel now has a market share of 28.26 percent with 169.19 million subscribers.

Vodafone followed with an addition of 2.09 million subscribers, taking its total users to 141.52 million.

Idea Cellular added 1.35 million subscribers to take its total subscribers base to 95.11 million.

State-run telecom operators Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd added 8,42,723 and 1,597 customers respectively taking their total user base to 88.46 million and 5.24 million.

Uninor added 943,924 to have a total of 26.33 million subscribers.

Uninor looks for loan to meet day-to-day operational costs

The dispute between JV partners Telenor and Unitech over raising funds for their Indian operations, which provides mobile services under their Uninor brand, has forced the telco to take short loans from abroad to meet its day-to-day operational costs, its managing director Sigve Brekke said. The loans are guaranteed by parent firm Telenor.

"Following the 2G scam and the controversies associated with the sector, the debt market in India has dried up completely for mobile phone companies. We had put in 6,100 crore for a 67.25% stake into the JV, whose total funding requirements are about 15,000 crore. The plan was to raise an additional 8,000 - 9,000 crore through debt, and since this option is no longer available, the board of Uninor had decided to go in for a rights issues to meet the funding requirements of the company," explained Brekke.

But earlier this year, Unitech had obtained a stay on the rights issue in a Gurgaon district court, a decision that was upheld by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Last week, the Supreme Court scrapped the Punjab & Haryana High Court order that prevented the company from going ahead with the rights issue to raise about 6,700 crore and directed the high court to rehear the pleas of Unitech and Telenor. He refused to comment, but said that 'discussions were on to resolve the issue'.

Brekke said the funding issues had impacted Uninor's expansion plans, while adding that the company had availed short-term debt from the international market, that was guaranteed by Telenor, to sustain its daily operations. Uninor, which currently offers mobile services in only 13 of the 22 telecom circles or regions, had put off expansion plans for several months now.

According to the Uninor MD, the expansion plans were also put on hold as the company was 'struggling with organizational and distribution issues in the four Southern markets - Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and AP'. "It was crucial to step back and get our business model right, especially regarding distribution," he added.


After having learnt its lessons, Uninor is now working to launch services in three new circles - Haryana, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh.

Telenor entered India in 2009 when it bought a controlling stake in Unitech Wireless, the telecoms arm of realty firm Unitech Wireless. But Unitech Wireless is one of the companies which has been charge sheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the 2G spectrum scam and its former Chairman Mr Sanjay Chandra is in jail, one of the accused, is in jail.

Brekke admitted that the company was concerned about the possibility that its mobile permits in India could be cancelled as an outcome of the ongoing 2G trial.

"We have nothing to hide and our main shareholder, the Norwegian government, is in India for the long run. We came in much later after Unitech was given the mobile permits and are cooperating with all the different investigating agencies. We have invested over 6,000 crore, have 26 million customers and about 2500 employees - I don't see how these factors cannot be taken into account before any decision on cancellation is taken," he added.

June-11 :: Bharti adds 2.12 mn, Vodafone adds 2.09 mn, Idea adds 1.35 mn

Bharti Airtel , India's top mobile carrier, added 2.12 million mobile subscribers in June, taking its total to 169.2 million, data from an industry body showed on Friday.

Vodafone's Indian unit, which is the country's third-biggest mobile carrier, signed up 2.09 million mobile subscribers in June to have a total of about 141.5 million, the Cellular Operators Association of India said.

Fifth-ranked Idea Cellular gained 1.35 million mobile subscribers last month to have a total of about 95.1 million, while Telenor's India unit added 0.94 million users, boosting its total to 26.3 million.

MTNL to rejig marketing, customer care operations in Delhi & Mumbai to achieve 25% revenue jump

State-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) is about to overhaul its marketing and customer care operations in Delhi and Mumbai, following a directive from communication minister Kapil Sibal asking the management to achieve a 25% jump in revenues by March 2012.

This effectively means, MTNL will need to crank up nearly an extra Rs.1,000 crore in additional revenues over the next nine months. "We did almost Rs.4,000 crore of revenues in FY11 and the telecom minister now wants MTNL to achieve a minimum 25% revenue growth by the year-end from its full spectrum of services, which means nearly an additional Rs.1,000 crore by Marchend 2012," said an MTNL director who did not wish to be named.

"In the immediate term, we have told our marketing and customer care units in Delhi and Mumbai to focus more on the lucrative enterprise business and also target a significant improvement in call completion rates in our GSM networks," said the official quoted above.

The MTNL leadership concedes meeting the higher revenue target will not be a cake-walk, given that the loss-making telco is struggling to keep pace with nimble private sector rivals like Bharti Airtel , Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular in the biggest telecom zones of Delhi and Mumbai where it operates.

So much so, MTNL sufferedRs.2,826 crore net loss in FY11, which is 8.27% higher than the earlier financial year. Dismal call completion rates are at the heart of MTNL's problems, which has resulted in a poor appetite for its mobile services in recent months.

A recent Trai report reportedly indicated that MTNL added fewer than 400 new mobile subscribers in April 2011, which is a far cry to the hundreds of thousands of new customer acquisitions happening across private mobile networks.

"Internal targets cannot be shared, but we are a looking at a double-digit improvement in MTNL's call completion rates across its landline and mobile networks in Mumbai and Delhi. We will also bolster our marketing & customer care divisions to reach out faster to potential retail, wholesale and enterprise customers. We believe this can lead to some improvement in new customer acquisitions across our landline and mobile services businesses in the near future," said another MTNL executive.

However, executives concede that the telecoms PSU is in the throes of a serious funds crunch, especially after the Rs.7,000 crore of bridge loans it took to buy costly 3G and BWA airwaves in Delhi and Mumbai last year. Its stressed financial state can ease somewhat if the Department of Telecom or DoT agrees to foot MTNL's near Rs.390 crore annual pension payout bill.

"Since MTNL's employees are essentially DoT people who were absorbed in two stages - November 1998 and October 2000 - we are hopeful the telecom department will handle the pension payouts in future. We are awaiting DoT response to our proposal," said a top company executive.

A portion of MTNL's bridge loans have been restructured. "But investments in new projects can only happen after we clear our existing debt. The telco is in the process of taking another Rs.1,500 crore of secured loans from private and public sector banks to prune its debt and meet long-term capex requirements," said he added.

Like BSNL, Sibal wants the MTNL management to take the tough calls and make circle heads in Mumbai and Delhi financially accountable. Indications are that future budget allocations for MTNL's Delhi and Mumbai circles will be linked to revenues achieved.

At present, Mumbai circle generates 60% of MTNL's revenues while Delhi generates the balance 40%

Relief from pesky calls, SMSes in sight; DoT to release number

Finally, over 800 million telecom users may get relief from unwarranted calls and SMSes, with the DoT slated to announce a dedicated landline number series that can be used to identify telemarketers within a month.

"The Department of Telecom has sorted the issue to allot the number series for landline consumers with the security agencies. Now its a matter of another one month that consumers will get much needed relief from the unsolicited calls and SMSes," a senior Telecom Ministry official said.

Telecom regulator Trai, to put a check on unsolicited calls and SMSes, had asked the DoT to allocate an easily identifiable number series for telemarketing companies. While a series beginning with '140' was allocated to mobile services, a separate identifiable number series for landline numbers hasn't been allocated yet.

The DoT had pointed out various technical, billing and security concerns in issuing a number series for landline services.

A call from a landline number can be identified based on the STD code -- the initial digits and then levels (digits following STD codes), which differ from exchange to exchange within a city.

In case an identifiable series of '140' is used, it will impact the numbering system being used at present for allocating new connections.

Adding a 3-digit series to landline numbers will take the total digits to 13 and to transmit such numbers on telecom networks, especially for caller line identification, BSNL and MTNL need to install new equipment in exchanges.

Also, it will be difficult for security agencies to track calls, as it will display an uniform code instead of a STD code for connections across the country.

Last December, Trai had come out with recommendations, 'The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations , 2010' to curb the menace of pesky calls and SMSes.

Since then, two deadlines have been missed for implementing the guidelines in view of the absence of an identified number series.

Trai has recommended a maximum fine of Rs 2.5 lakh on telemarketing companies for making unsolicited calls or SMSes to a consumer registered under the national customer preference register -- a modified version of Trai's Do Not Call Registry list.

The subscriber may choose to be under the 'Fully Blocked' category, which is akin to the 'Do Not Call Registry'. The user can also choose the 'Partially Blocked' category, in which case he will receive SMSes in the categories chosen by him

Bharti Airtel may merge verticals, changes expected in over 3000 job positions

Bharti Airtel is likely to announce merger of its DTH , Telemedia and Mobility Division , say reports. Sunil Mittal , founder and CMD of Bharti Airtel is likely to make restructuring announcement today. The company may announce changes of over 3000 job positions.

The stock reacted positively and was at Rs 396.95, up Rs 13.55 or 3.53 per cent on the NSE. It touched a high of Rs 397.80 and low of Rs 383.55 in trade so far.

Bharti's move could provide the trigger for similar action at rivals, many of whom are battling identical issues-debt burden, slowing growth and high marketing spends amid cut-price tariffs. Several Bharti executives and others familiar with the company's plans told ET that managers had been told to cut positions in their teams and that the merger would create large-scale redundancies.

Bharti, in its response to specific queries sent by ET last month, confirmed the restructuring, but said it would have "minimal impact on people". "As and when any change is planned, the same will be done in the interest of all stakeholders and shared in an open and transparent manner."

The company said it had pioneered what it called the "strategic outsourcing model", in which key functions such as networks, technology and customer services are managed not by the company, but by specialist vendors. "Such initiatives wherever and whenever appropriate will find favour at Bharti. Scale and agility backed by synergies and business efficiencies have been the hallmark of Bharti Airtel's growth story.

Indeed, its outsourcing strategy, which helped it ramp up operations aggressively during its growth phase while keeping a tight grip on costs in a intensely competitive market with cut-price tariffs, has been acclaimed and adopted by telecom operators around the world. The last such big transfer of employees happened in 2009-10 when Alcatel Lucent took on its rolls more than 4,000 employees from Bharti as part of a deal to manage its landline and fibre businesses. Analysts said the latest restructuring was necessary for Bharti.

"It is a defensive step to cut costs and increase profitability, margins and also sustain its revenue market share," said an analyst with a Mumbai-based brokerage house, requesting anonymity. The company, which has dominated India's mobile revolution for much of the last decade, has been of late struggling to repeat its performance of yesteryears.

Cabinet to decide on spectrum pricing, says Sibal

Stung by a series of scams, the Telecom Ministry will approach Cabinet for a final decision on the controversial issue of spectrum pricing and also one-time charges for extra spectrum held by leading mobile service providers.

"We have finalised our views on the spectrum pricing and soon the matter would be taken up in the Telecom Commission... and once the Telecom Commission decides on the matter, I will go to the Cabinet for consensus," Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal told PTI.

Telecom regulator TRAI had in February this year recommended an over six-fold increase in the cost of start-up spectrum as well as extra airwaves held beyond the contracted limit of 6.2 Mhz by some leading service providers, including Bharti, Vodafone, Idea, BSNL and MTNL , in different circles.

According to TRAI, the initial 6.2 Mhz of spectrum would now cost Rs 10,972.45 crore for pan-India operations, compared to Rs 1,658 crore earlier. Furthermore, every Mhz of additional spectrum (on an all-India basis) beyond the contracted limit of 6.2 Mhz would cost a massive Rs 4,571.87 crore.

Most of the telecom firms, including Bharti, Vodafone, Idea and state-owned companies like BSNL and MTNL, hold extra spectrum beyond 6.2 Mhz and the new norms would put a huge financial burden on these telcos.

In addition, the licences of some of the operators, including Bharti, are due for renewal after completing 20 years periodicity in several circles. Such companies would have to pay to renew their licences as per the new norms recommended by TRAI.

Asked whether DoT is taking this matter exclusively to the Cabinet for its approval, Sibal said "No, no, I think general policy decisions also be informed to the Cabinet to tell that this is what we intend to do."

He, however, declined to comment what was the DoT's decision on TRAI's recommendations. Sources in-the-know said an internal committee of the DoT was in favour of TRAI's report on several issues.

Leading operators like Bharti and Vodafone had slammed the regulator and termed the recommendations absolutely "irrational".

Within days of TRAI's recommendations, Bharti Group Chairman Sunil Mittal had said, "We completely reject these propositions. How can 2G spectrum price be 800 per cent of 3G prices? There is no rationality in it."

A similar response was garnered from Vodafone, which asked the government to dump TRAI's report on spectrum pricing. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), a lobby for GSM service providers, has been maintaining that it was like "changing the goal posts in the middle of the game."

'Suspicious' Huawei to help set up telecom lab in India

Rather like letting the fox to guard the henhouse, India plans to entrust a Chinese company with a crucial role in helping ferret out spy software hidden in imported telecom gear.

Huawei Technologies , a major supplier to Indian mobile phone firms and the object of the Indian government's suspicion, has been enlisted to provide knowhow and equipment for a facility that will be a clearing house for all imported telecom gear, the draft of an agreement shows.

Huawei and the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, where the testing lab will be housed, will soon sign a memorandum of understanding under which the Chinese company will provide "documentation, expertise, methods and standards for studying telecom equipment," a government official said.

India was compelled to take the help of the Chinese company because no Indian firm makes telecom gear and no other foreign company was willing to assist because of worries about intellectual property rights, the official said.

Huawei is the world's second-largest telecom gearmaker after Ericsson, with 2010 revenues of $28 billion (Rs 1.27 lakh crore). The government has been suspicious that it and another Chinese company, ZTE, could use the telecom equipment they supply to snoop on India and even launch cyber attacks.

The lab at IISc is being built solely to address the concerns of intelligence and security agencies about the Chinese vendors. "In order for IISc to perform certain studies in respect of telecom equipments, IISc shall be requiring detailed understanding about various features, standards and related documentation. Huawei...agrees to share some information, knowledge, software, hardware and equipments with IISc for its studies," says the MoU, seen by ET.

It also says that both of them can visit each other's facilities, including Huawei's manufacturing plants and logistics centres. The IISc centre was given funding by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in the 2010-11 budget. It is being modelled after the China Information Technology Certification Centre that operates and maintains a national evaluation and certification scheme for that country's IT and telecom security.

A pilot lab has started functioning in Bangalore and a fullfledged centre is likely to be established in next three years after the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, minister of state for communications and IT Gurudas Kamat told Parliament in May 2010. Just a year ago, Huawei and ZTE were battling to avoid being banned from the world's largest market for telecom equipment.

Beginning February 2010 for six months, the home ministry refused to clear telecom equipment contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars allotted to Chinese firms on fears that these companies had the capabilities of installing spyware and malware that could monitor voice and data traffic and disable networks. This delay disrupted the expansion plans of several mobile service providers.

Imports from Chinese vendors resumed only in August 2010 after Huawei and ZTE agreed to comply with new rules that make it necessary for foreign equipment companies to put their software in the equivalent of a sealed envelope to be opened by Indian authorities only in the event of a security threat.

In the same month, Huawei, founded by Chinese army veteran Ren Zhengfei, revealed details of its shareholding to the Indian government in what it said was an unprecedented disclosure.

India is the world's largest market for international vendors. Sales of telecom equipment are expected to increase from $12.5 billion in 2009-10 to $40 billion in 2020, according to telecom regulator Trai. On Wednesday, telecom journal Voice & Data said revenues of Huawei and ZTE in India fell by 23.5% and 12.8%, respectively, for the twelve months to March 2011 after they were barred for several months last year from supplying equipment to companies here.

Huawei's India sales were Rs 5,688 crore while for ZTE it was Rs 4,118 crore. Nokia Siemens overtook Ericsson with annual revenues of Rs 6,117 crore to be the largest equipment vendor in India.

A Huawei spokesperson declined to comment on the pact, but an executive close to the company confirmed that a deal had been struck. The person added that the move to share IPR and commercially sensitive information with a statefunded research agency here would go a long way in bridging the trust deficit.

No pesky calls, SMSs from August 15

After missing four deadlines, the rules slated to bring relief to millions of customers from pesky telemarketers and unwanted commercial text messages may be implemented from August 2011, an official with the telecoms regulator Trai, who is directly involved with the new Do-Not-Call (DNC) registry informed

Trai had announced the new rules last year under which telemarketers who call customers registered with DNC would face fines of Rs 75,000 for the first violation and up to Rs 2.5 lakh for the sixth offence, after which they would be blacklisted for a period of two years, but this had not been implemented so far.

Close to 100 million mobile phone users, or one in eight cell phone subscribers, had signed up under the old DNC introduced in 2007, but the regulator was forced to act after rampant complaints from users of its ineffectiveness. Earlier, the penalties were only between Rs 500 and Rs 1000.

As per the new rules, mobile users will have a choice of blocking only telemarketing voice calls while choosing to receive SMSes. Even when receiving text messages, the customer can specify an area of choice, such as banking, financial products, real estate, education, health, consumer goods, automobiles, communication and entertainment, tourism and leisure. Registered telemarketers would not be allowed to send any commercial communications between 9 pm and 9 am, even to unregistered customers.

ET has learnt that Trai has sent a fresh communication to the telecoms department ( DoT )) on Tuesday seeking that it complete the process of allotting the '140' number series to all telemarketers, to help consumers spot unsolicited commercial calls, by June-end.

Once this process is completed, telcos will require between 4-6 weeks to install the requisite filtering mechanisms on their networks to protect customers registered with the DNC, the official quoted above added.

Differences in allotting this numbering system, coupled with demands from mobile phone companies who had sought more time to upgrade their networks, had delayed the implementation of the new rules.

Even as the regulator is aiming at a tentative date of August 15 to kick off the new DNC registry, BSNL may play spoilsport again. The state-owned operator has sought additional time till the calendar year-end to upgrade its exchanges to handle the new series of ten-digit numbers starting with 140, an executive with the state-owned company said.

'The delay is due to BSNL - most of their switching infrastructure is old and it will be challenge for them to get it ready to handle the new numbering series on landlines. On the mobile side, the infrastructure is largely in place across all operators," explained Rajan Mathews , who heads the Cellular Operators Association of India, the industry lobby representing all GSM players.

But an executive with another company added that many private telcos too had not yet installed software to track violations by those telemarketing firms that have multiple connections from different operators. The executive also expressing doubts if this could be completed by July-end.

To ensure that telemarketers do not take fresh connections on cancellations, the registration process of these firms now include details like their PAN cards.

ET had reported last month that the communications ministry would soon grant more powers to sector regulator Trai after the latter demanded it be allowed to act against erring telemarketers. But the telecoms department (DoT) is yet to spell out the details.

Existing rules on curbing spam SMSes and pesky calls on mobiles have largely come unstuck as both the regulator and the department had been involved in a jurisdiction battle.

Bharti adds 2.45 mln Indian mobile users in May-11

Bharti Airtel , India's top mobile carrier, signed up 2.45 million mobile subscribers in May, taking its total to 167.1 million, data from an industry body showed on Monday.

Vodafone's Indian unit, which is the country's third-biggest mobile carrier, also added 2.45 million subscribers in May to have a total of 139.4 million, the Cellular Operators Association of India said in a statement.

Fifth-ranked Idea Cellular gained 1.8 million mobile users in May to a total of 93.8 million.

Telenor's India unit added 1.14 million mobile subscribers to reach a total of 25.4 million.

Handset sales in India likely to touch 220 mn in 2011

Buoyed by increasing number of mobile phone users, India is expected to see sales of about 220 million mobile handsets in 2011, as per latest estimates from global research group Gartner.

India, one of the fastest growing handset markets in the world, has millions of mobile phone users whose count are rising every month.

Based on current trends, Gartner has projected that about 220 million handsets are expected to be sold in India in 2011.

"Huge growth is expected in terms of mobile phone users in the coming months. The share of low end devices (in the total handsets sold) is high," Gartner's Principal Research Analyst Anshul Gupta told PTI.

Around 175 million handsets were sold last year in India. As many as 50.7 million mobile devices and three million smartphones were sold during the first three months of 2011, Gartner estimates showed.

In the wake of substantial growth, the competition has also increased, especially with rising number of local and Chinese brands. Local and Chinese brands alone account for over 50 per cent market share.

Gupta noted that there are more than 150 brands in the Indian market.

"Price competitiveness and value for money devices from local and Chinese players are giving a tough competition to big global brands," Gartner said.

Latest figures from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed that mobile subscriber base in the country rose to 826.93 million at the end of April 2011

Uninor subscriber base crosses 25 million

Subscriber base of new telecom company Uninor has crossed 25 mn mark by end of May, 2011 and the company became the eighth largest telecom operator in the country on subcriber base in April.

"Our long-term ambition is to establish ourselves among the top six operators in each of our circles. There is some distance to go till we reach that goal, but we are encouraged by the progress we are making," Sigve Brekke, Managing Director, Uninor said in a statement.

Based on subscriber base report of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India , Uninor has taken over its competing companies who got approval along with it and even crossed subcriber base of state-run telecom company MTNL .

The other five operators that lagged behind UNinor in April are CDMA player MTS, GSM operators Videocon, Loop, S Tel and Etisalat DB.

"Total subscription base is now bigger than at least one incumbent in 8 of its 13 commercially operational circles," the company said in a statement.

Sharing its customer base, Uninor disclosed that it had 4 mn mobile phone subscriber base in UP East, close to 3 mn in UP West, 2.8 mn in Bihar and 2.4 mn in West Bengal.

These service area together contributed almost 48 per cent of the total subscription base, the statement said.

The other leading service area for the company are Andhra Pradesh with 2.3 mn subscriber base, Maharashtra with 2.19 mn and Gujarat accounted for 1.96 mn mobile phone customers of the company.

Uninor launched its commercial service in eight telecom circles in December, 2009. With the launch of an additional five circles, the company reached its current commercial footprint of 13 circles in June, 2010

BSNL, USOF on collision course over funding of mobile communications infrastructure in Naxalprone states

Cash-strapped BSNL and the Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) Administrator are on a collision course over the funding of mobile communications infrastructure in Naxalprone states across eastern, central and southern India as demanded by the home ministry.

Telecom department officials managing the Rs 17,000- crore USOF corpus have spurned BSNL's demand for subsidising the rollout of mobile networks in Maoist territories.

First, they have asked BSNL to meet all operating costs linked to the project from its internal revenues. On BSNL's compensation demand for associated capital costs incurred, the USOF has lobbed the ball into the court of telecom minister Kapil Sibal .

What's more, at a recent meeting chaired by telecom secretary R Chandrasekhar, it was decided that BSNL would be asked to establish mobile networks only around the major police stations across all Naxal- infested zones.

"We've told the BSNL management there's no need to provide exhaustive mobile coverage to every nook and cranny in states with a Maoist presence since that would be a waste of central resources. Coverage may extend some 3 km around every major police station in such regions," said a telecom department official who was present in the meeting.

"BSNL would do well to invest in solar power-driven mobile infrastructure, which would help optimise costs. Compensation of capital costs would entail the telecom minister's approval," said a senior official responsible for managing the USOF corpus

RCOM protests BSNL’s breach of agreement

Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Communications on Monday protested stateowned BSNL's move to pull the plug on interconnections between networks of both companies in Punjab and Haryana last month over a financial dispute that stretched back to 2004.

BSNL had disengaged its point of interconnection (PoIs), the junctions at which traffic from one cellular network is passed on to the other, from that of RCOM on three occasions last month. This resulted in eight million customers across both companies being unable to call each other, RCOM said in a statement.

The PoIs were disconnected on May 23 and 31 in Haryana and on May 4 in Punjab, the telco added. BSNL says Reliance Communications is yet to clear its dues to the tune of Rs 200 crore towards the payment of a levy called Access Deficit Charge, an allegation that is denied by the private operator.

RCOM also said that BSNL's move to disconnect PoIs were a violation of existing agreements between both companies. Besides, it also added that the matter was sub-judice and BSNL could therefore unilaterally act not initiate action. All private operators paid BSNL this levy till 2008 to support the state-owned telco's unviable and subsidised rural operations.

In March 2011, the telecom tribunal had stayed BSNL's demands of Rs 200 crore towards access deficit charge from RCOM and also directed the state-owned telco not to disconnect PoIs between both companies. "In April 2011, BSNL raised fresh ADC-related demands for the period February-November 2004. The arbitrariness of BSNL is reflected in its entirely unprecedented demand. BSNL has also raised additional interest invoices for the period November 14, 2004, to February 28, 2006, using a methodology that is totally out of line with the relevant agreements between the two operators," RCOM said

Indian telecom services, handset mkt will be $82 bn by 2014

The advent of high speed wireless services, namely 3G and BWA , will take the total of size of the Indian telecom services and mobile handset market to USD 82 billion or Rs 3,77,685 crore, approximately by 2014, said market research firm CyberMedia Research.

CyberMedia Research estimates that the Indian telecom services and mobile handset market will grow at compound annual growth rate of 15.8 per cent.

"The telecom growth story will be a function of the enhanced demand for high speed broadband and data services from both enterprises and consumers, as 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) services are rolled out by various operators," CyberMedia Research Associate Vice-President Anirban Banerjee said in a statement.

The firm estimates that the telecom services market will grow to Rs 2,48,956 crore in 2014 from Rs 1,84,207 crore in 2011.

CyberMedia Research has included all the services being offered to individuals and business entities over mobile and fixed line phones like voice telephony services, data services, value-added services and leased line connections.

The company expects that tablet PCs priced below Rs 10,000 will be a game changer in the mobile handset segment.

"A 'game changer' in this space could happen in late 2011 or early 2012 if players such as Reliance Infotel introduce a 'mass market' tablet priced lower than Rs 10,000 per unit," the report said.

CyberMedia Research expects over 1,00,000 tablets to ship in 2011 alone, based on the current portfolio of players like Samsung , Apple , Olive and others. However, media tablets in their present form and currently prevailing price points are unlikely to excite the large majority of consumers.

The mobile handset market, both feature-packed phones and smartphones, will account for Rs 1,28,129 crore in 2014, up from Rs 64,077 crore in 2011.

In 2012, the research report says the telecom services market will reach Rs 2,05,454 crore and the mobile handset segment will touch Rs 83,377 crore.

The research report estimates that year 2011 will see the advent of a large number of smartphones with dual processors.

"Till the end of 2010, a top-end smartphone used to be equipped with a 1-GHz processor. Starting 2011, with the use of dual core processors in smartphones, these devices have become more powerful as compared to their predecessors," the report said.

The market is expected to witness more excitement on the CPU front, with the launch of multi-core processor based smartphones by a number of mobile phone vendors by end 2011, the report added

Anil Ambani upbeat on West Bengal

Reliance ADAG Group chairman Anil Ambani is upbeat about the new political stirrings in West Bengal and left the possibility of investing in the state open. "I've come to Kolkata after years and I see lots of changes... lets see," he told ET with a beaming smile, when asked if he would invest in a greenfield venture in West Bengal.

Dressed in a creamy white churidar kurta, Ambani was in town with wife Tina on a whistle stop tour to attend chief lieutenant and R-ADAG group vice chairman Amitabh Jhunjhunwala's son Abhinav's engagement ceremony on Sunday.

Asked if he would call on West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee later in the day to submit a business proposal, Ambani said: "I'm afraid, no further questions today, I will not talk in the future tense... I am here to attend a private function today." Reliance ADAG executives ruled out a possible meeting between Ambani and Banerjee on Sunday. Though speculation was rife that he was likely to call on the West Bengal finance minister, Amit Mitra clarified later in the evening that there was no such meeting.

Be that as it may, Ambani's visit to Kolkata coincides with state industry minister Partha Chatterjee's announcement that R-ADAG group chairman is keen to invest in West Bengal. It also comes at a time when the state government is about to reopen all cases where prime land has not been used by top business houses years after allotment. A case in point is a prime 6-acre plot that was alloted to RCom for a state-of-the-art BPO venture in the city's Salt Lake IT hub. The land remains idle and the project hasn't seen the light of day eight years after the erstwhile Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee government had cleared the allotment. RCom had said the project would generate some 2,000 ITeS jobs in Kolkata

Airtel fails to grab the opportunity to become a clean corporate leader

Hides behind the industry association by being non committal to come out clean

The talks between Greenpeace and telecom giant Airtel today failed as the telecom operator refused to commit to a timeline to disclose its carbon emissions and phase out diesel from its telecom tower operations.

In a clear case of hiding behind the industry association and desisting from taking responsibility, the senior management representatives of the telecom giant along with those from Indus Towers (an Airtel joint venture), Bharti Infratel (Bharti Airtel’s fully owned subsidiary) and Cellular Operator Association of India (COAI), said COAI would report to Greenpeace in three months on possible areas of cooperation.

Greenpeace delegation was led by Campaign Director Divya Raghunandan, Campaigners Abhishek Pratap, Mrinmoy Chattaraj and Amrin Shaikh.

“It is unfortunate that Airtel failed to agree to our demands and thus there was no headway in the meeting. We are urging the company to reconsider its stand on the issue and come out clean in the public. ”said Divya Raghunandan, Campaign Director, Greenpeace India.

The meeting between Airtel and Greenpeace was held a week after Greenpeace staged a demonstration outside Airtel headquarters in Gurgaon near New Delhi demanding the company to switch off diesel1.

Despite earlier having indicated that Airtel will give a commitment on the timelines for carbon emission disclosure and diesel phase out, it did not come up with a clear roadmap, In fact, it insisted that the entire industry needs to give commitment and will come back only after three months on what the entire industry will commit.

Greenpeace has been urging Airtel to -

•Publicly disclose the carbon emissions of its entire business operation and establish progressive emission reduction targets
•Commit to shift the sourcing of 50% of its energy requirements towards renewable energy sources and phase out diesel use in its business operations by 2015.
•Catalyse a low-carbon economy wide growth, by using its brand power to advocate for strong policies that promote renewable energy

Nothing wrong with Tata-Unitech deal: CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation has told a parliamentary committee investigating the telecom sector that it has not come across any irregularities in two transactions in which the Tata Group was involved. The CBI director, AP Singh, told the joint parliamentary committee on Monday that the agency had examined a payment by Tata Realty to Unitech and the dealings between Voltas , a Tata group company, and the owners of a plot in Chennai.

Singh's 45-page presentation to the JPC , of which ET has a copy, is a status report on its investigation into the telecom sector, notably the award of licences by former telecom minister A Raja. This paper reported on June 8 that companies such as Loop and Swan Telecom were being probed. But the tone, tenor and substance of Singh's presentation are quite different in case of the Tatas, compared to the other companies, where serious irregularities and violations of law are alleged. The CBI presentation sites no instances in which the salt-to-software group has violated any law or regulation.

The payment to Unitech, the CBI has found, was made on October 10, 2007, after the two companies entered into a memorandum of understanding for buying 527 acres in Gurgaon. Tata Realty paid Rs 1,700 crore, which was utilised by the Delhi-based company to pay for telecom licences, awarded by Raja in 2008.

The deal was later scaled back and most of the money was returned. "This single transaction cannot be construed to prove that M/s Unitech Ltd was an associate of Tata Sons in terms of UASL guidelines," according to Singh's presentation, absolving the Tatas of any blame for Unitech's actions. The CBI's analysis for the Chennai transaction comes to the same conclusion. Voltas, a Tata Group company, is currently fighting a court case to renew its lease over a plot located at Anna Salai, a prominent Chennai road, with the plot owner. The CBI probed a proposal for an out-of-court settlement from a person that it says is close to the family of the former Tamil Nadu chief minister. But the proposed settlement, in which Tata Realty was supposed to construct a building on the land, was never executed.

Rate war in telecom is over, cell tariffs set to rise

A single naya paisa is still buying-power in India, if you are shopping for talk-time . Indeed, air-time is the cheapest commodity in the country now. But the days of falling mobile tariffs may be at its end.

"The price war is over," declared a senior official of a leading telecom operator , who did not want to be named. "Air-time prices have touched rock bottom and no imagination or innovation can help it go down further. Now it can be only a scheme where subscribers are paid for the calls they make. That will be suicidal."

Suresh Kumar, COO of Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh circles in MTS India , says voice tariff has hit a trough. "We already offer tariffs at half a paisa per second," he said, indicating it can't get better for customers. Atul Bindal, president (mobile services) in Bharti Airtel , says the company had always believed that the price war couldn't last. "It is unrealistic and uneconomical . Some operators have been offering prices much below the marginal cost of a call.'' The mobile telephony industry has been going through a difficult period , with low revenue growth, high pressure on margins, huge investments in 3G infrastructure and the 2G scam.

The year 2009-10 was bad for the entire industry, with an average revenue growth of about 5%. In 2010-11 , with greater stability in tariffs and growth in VAS (value added services) and data services, the revenue growth is estimated to be 10% to 12%.

Bharti Airtel's net profit declined by 31% in the last quarter, Reliance Communications suffered a net loss of Rs 758 crore in the last financial year. Some think that these pressures will push prices up.

"Over the next two years, operators will have to focus on customer delight and service innovation. This will result in higher input costs which may result in tariffs moving northwards," says Prashant Singhal, telecom industry leader in consulting firm Ernst & Young. Hemant Joshi, partner (telecom practice), in consultancy firm Deloitte Haskins & Sells, says operators might introduce offerings with assured uptime and quality at differential pricing. "In developed markets such pricing already exists for data products," he says.

V Venkatesh of Chith Consulting, a Bangalore-based business strategy consulting firm, says providers might withdraw some of their unviable, highly incentivized packages and discontinue certain tariff plans once the validity period is over.

He says focusing on non-voice and better ARPUs (average revenue per user ) would help industry improve its revenue growth rate

2G scam: Court allows Karim Morani to be shifted to cleaner cell in Tihar

A Delhi court today allowed Karim Morani , one of the 14 accused and arrested in the 2G scam , to be shifted to a cooler and tidier cell in Tihar Jail.

Special CBI judge OP Saini allowed Morani's plea after the probe agency did not raise any objections. Morani's legal counsel said that his client was suffering from heart ailment and "considering his medical condition he may be placed in a cell which is less dusty and comparatively cooler."

Morani was arrested last month after the special CBI court denied bail to him, along with lawmaker Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, Rajya Sabha MP and daughter of DMK president M Karunanidhi, and Sharad Kumar. Kanimozhi and Kumar are shareholders in Kalaignar TV.

The CBI's second chargesheet alleged that Swan Telecom and Dynamix Realty Promoters - Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka, channelled Rs 200 crore to DMK family-run Kalaignar TV, through Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd and Morani's Cineyug Films Pvt Ltd.

The agency, in the first charge sheet filed, had said the money travelled through a "circuitous route" through Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd, a DB group company and Cineyug Films Pvt Ltd, to the Kalaignar TV.

The court also issued a production warrant, asking Surendra Pipara, senior vice president of ADA Group, to be produced in court on Wednesday. Pipara skipped his court appearance today because he was admitted in AIIMS hospital, Tihar Jail superintendent informed the court.

Pipara has been in and out of hospitals following his weak medical condition. The court also ordered the jail superintendent to report on Pipara's condition on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, legal counsel for Shahid Balwa, promoter of Dynamix Realty, asked the court to grant permission for photographing signatures on a few documents that were part of the evidence. The special court would hear the application on Thursday but at the same time it asked lawyers of the accused to expedite the scrutiny of documents and the CBI to supply all deficient documents such that the case can proceed further.

The executives have been accused of forgery, cheating and abetment to crime and were sent to judicial custody on April 20 by the CBI Special Court after turning down their bail applications

New Interconnection Usage Charge (IUC) regime

TRAI has requested the Supreme Court for three months extension for completing formulation of the new Interconnection Usage Charge (IUC) regime.

The Apex court had earlier given TRAI four months time on February 4 for coming up with recommendation on telecom interconnection charges which expired on June 4.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had in an application filed on Friday requested the apex court "to grant further 3 months time to TRAI to carry out exercise in framing IUC regulation".

Meanwhile, the TRAI, which is facing opposition from the new and old established telecom operators over the issues and methods adopted in consultation process to review IUC, has requested the apex court to give suitable directions over it.

It has requested the apex court to " grant suitable direction regarding the procedure and method to be followed by it (TRAI) since there are difficulties/issues with regard to implementation of compliance with the directions of TDSAT in the impugned order".

Interconnection charges are paid by a telecom service provider for using network of other operators for transmitting and completing a call.

TRAI's IUC regulation was widely opposed by the state run BSNL and private operators - Bharti, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel, Etisalat DB and CDMA lobby group AUSPI on various grounds.

Last month, the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal had dismissed the plea filed by the UK-based telecom operator Vodafone, opposed some of the question incorporated in IUC consultation paper of TRAI.

On February 4 this year a three-judge bench of the apex court headed by the Chief Justice S H Kapadia had directed TRAI to frame the IUC regulation afresh as per the directions of the TDSAT.

TDSAT had on September 29 last year set aside the TRAI's Interconnection Usage Charges (Regulation), 2009 and asked the telecom regulator to bring out fresh regulations in consultations with various stake holders.

Following it, TRAI on April 27 issued a consultation paper on IUC. However, a set of GSM companies questioned some of the issued raised in it, contending that it was not in accordance with the directions of TDSAT.

In its 2009 IUC regulation, TRAI had fixed a mobile termination charge (MTC) at 20 paise per minute for all local and national long distance charges.

It had also raised the MTC for incoming international calls to 40 paise per minute from 30 paise, while putting a ceiling on carriage fee of 65 paise per minute for domestic long distance calls

Sistema’s India operations losses widen Rs 663 crore

Mobile phone company Sistema said losses from its Indian arm widened by 63% to Rs 666 crore for the three months ended March 31 and attributed the fall to rising cost of operations and additional capital expenditure to expand services to new regions in the country.


"The decrease in margin is on account of increase in operational costs due to further scale up operations across all circles. Additionally, the circles of UP East, West and Gujarat, were launched in the latter part of 2010, hence the impact of their launch was felt in Q1 2011," the telco, in which the Russian government recently picked up close to 20% stake,said in a statement. India's Shyam group has a minority 26% stake in the teleco.

Sistema Shyam's results are a pointer that expansion costs, interest payouts for thousands of crores in loans for putting up networks in new areas and lower usage by new additions outside metros and big cities will continue to squeeze its profits and margins of all new entrants that are struggling to make in mark in the ultra competitive 14-player market.

The company's consolidated debt stands at Rs 5,584 crore.The telco's losses widened despite its sales jumping three-folds to Rs 236.2 crore during January-March quarter of FY'11, as against Rs 78.6 crore in the same period last year.

For the first time, our revenue growth during the quarter was faster than our growth in wireless (voice and data) subscribers, the company said.The company's results however have two key pointer that indicate that underlying trends are still positive.

First, its blended Average Revenue Per mobile User (ARPU) for the quarter remained consistent at Rs 82, as against a declining trend in the market. But, this is still low when compared to incumbent GSM operators such as Bharti, Idea and Vodafone, whose ARPUs are close to the Rs 200 mark.


Next, against an industry average of 10-15%, Sistema said its data services offerings accounted for a quarter of its revenues. "Non voice revenues from both data and mobile value added services for the quarter (was) up by 33% Q-o-Q to INR 588 million (Rs 58.5 crore) which contributes 25% of total revenue and the same has increased by 2 percentage points for the quarter," the company added.

It also said that at the end of Q1 2011, the company had expanded its mobile data services to 130 cities in India, including all five metros. The number of data subscribers increased by 36% over Q4 '10 to 580,000. Currently, MTS' HSD services are present in over 150 cities, its statement added

Airtel tops list of companies with max consumer complaints

India's largest mobile service provider Bharti Airtel has earned the dubious distinction of being the company facing the largest number of consumer complaints, according to latest government data.

As per the latest data available with the National Consumer Helpline (NCH), as many as 2001 complaint calls were received against Bharti Airtel between March 2010 and February 2011.

This was highest number of complaints against a single company, followed by state-owned telecom major BSNL (1986 complaints), PSU giant Indian Oil (1940), Anil Ambani-led telecom firm Reliance Communications (1792) and Nokia India (1616).

Other companies in the top-ten list in terms of number of complaints included Samsung India (1560), SBI (912), BPCL (872), LIC (626) and ICICI Bank (569).

NCH is a public service project of the Consumer Affairs Ministry run by Delhi University and has been functional since March 2005.

It helps consumers in dealing with problems related to defective products, deficiency in services and unfair trade practices.

There are as many as five telecom-related companies in the top ten. It also consists of five public sector firms.

According to a presentation by NCH before the Food and Consumer Affairs Minister K V Thomas last week, it has received 67,347 complaint calls between March 2010 and February 2011.

Out of total calls, the maximum complaints (21 per cent) were for defective products followed by telecom (17 per cent) and banking sector (7 per cent).

"This list shows these companies have not been able to handle the issues being faced by their customers, which forces the customers to seek our guidance," NCH's Principal Investigator Sri Ram Khanna told PTI.

It also sheds light on the management practices, especially customer redressal process of these companies, he added.

This shows that these companies failed to solve the problems being faced by their customers, Khanna pointed out.

NCH provides advice to consumers on a three tier model. In the first step, it advices the consumer to approach the concerned organisation. The second step involves helping the consumer approach the regulatory authorities existing in different sectors.

The final step is the last option where the consumer is advised to file a case in consumer courts.

NCH has handled 3,48,082 calls till March 31, 2011.

New telecom policy to delink spectrum from licenses

The Telecom Department was the arguably unlikely birthing ground for India’s largest-ever scam. A Raja, the minister who allegedly helmed the swindle, is now in jail – large amounts of frequency were virtually donated along with mobile network licenses to companies that were ineligible for them.

New Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal has announced a new set of rules today that aim at cleansing a system that seemed designed for manipulation. So Mr Sibal’s Telecom Policy 2011 deems that the licenses of all operators will be renewed every 10 years instead the 20-year-term that was on offer

Home Ministry asks DoT for timeline on domestic telecom equipment policy

The Ministry of Home Affairs has sought information from the DoT on the timeline for implementing a new policy to promote domestic manufacturers of telecom equipment and cut down the country's reliance on imports.

Most of the equipment used in Indian telecom networks at present is imported. The government has expressed apprehensions that imported telecom equipment may contain malware or bugs that will leak sensitive communications data to third parties, which could pose a threat to the nation's security.

To ensure the long-term security of India's telecom network, the MHA has expressed its desire to increase local production of critical components -- both hardware and software -- in the country.

The Department of Telecommunications has indicated that the forthcoming National Telecom Policy 2011 will give preferential treatment to local manufacturers. In this regard, telecom regulator TRAI has already given its recommendations on a proposed Telecom Equipment Manufacturing Policy to the DoT.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has suggested giving preferential treatment to made-in-India products -- besides incentives to telecom operators to source domestically manufactured equipment -- with the objective of ensuring that 80 per cent of India's telecom services network is based on indigenously manufactured equipment by 2020, up from just 3 per cent in the year 2009-10.

While the DoT is still studying TRAI's recommendations, the MHA's views on providing incentives to promote indigenous production have found concurrence within the DoT.

However, when Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal had held discussions on the issue with industry players in the first week of May, telecom operators criticised the need for giving preferential treatment to domestic manufacturers of telecom products.

When contacted on the issue, a senior DoT official said most of the officials in the department were busy responding to various enquiry committees set up by the government on the 2G spectrum scam and hence, a definitive timeline for implementation of the proposed National Telecom Manufacturing Policy could not be committed at this stage

Telcos scurry to conform to norms

Indian telecom companies are scurrying to conform to the government's stipulated health norms in light of growing evidence on the cancerous nature of cellphone radiation.

There has been an amendment in the Access Service Licenses - mandating self-certification radiation levels of cellphone towers - to ensure compliance with WHOendorsed guidelines of International Commission for Nonionizing Radiation Protection. The stricture led 5,88,645 out of 6,05,859 base stations to get self-certification till March 31, 2011.

Union MoS for communications and IT Sachin Pilot said non-compliance to the stipulated radiation limits carries a penalty of Rs 5 lakh for every mobile tower. Talking on the cellphone could cause a malignant form of brain cancer , said International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). It classified radiation emanating from cellphones alongside gasoline engine exhaust , lead and DDT as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" .

Pilot said, "The DoT set up an inter ministerial group in August 2010, to evaluate the evidence, revisit radiation guidelines for mobile towers and adopt guidelines for cell phones. This group has recommended radiation limits more stringent than that of the UN

Former Aircel promoter C Sivasankaran is likely to appear before CBI on Monday

Former Aircel promoter C Sivasankaran is likely to appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the Aircel-Maxis deal on Monday. The CBI sleuths will record his statement. Former telecom minister and current Union textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran is under the scanner of the CBI in the matter.

According to information, Sivasankaran will land at the CBI office on Monday to shed light on the circumstances leading to his exit from Aircel.

According to CBI sources, Sivasankaran has acquired the nationality of Seychelles. He has bought many properties in the country in the last few years. According to CBI officials, Siva is well-connected businessman with former FBI chief Louis J Freeh reportedly working as his attorney.

The Aircel-Maxis deal is under investigation as part of CBI’s preliminary enquiry into the implementation of telecom policy between 2001 and 2007. Sivasankaran or Siva as he is widely known, sold his 74% stake in Aircel to Maxis, a Malaysian telecom company owned by T Ananda Krishnan. The remaining stake went to the Apollo group.

According to sources, fortunes of Aircel changed dramatically after Sivasankaran's exit from the firm. The company was awarded licneces for seven more circles after the change in ownership. The CBI plans to make Sivasankaran a complainant in the matter to make a strong case.

2G case: Court asks CBI to respond to plea of Swan co-promoter Vinod Goenka

A Delhi court today directed CBI to file its reply on a plea of co-promoter of Swan Telecom Vinod Goenka , an accused in the 2G scam, seeking permission to sign a resolution to appoint an additional director in a company in which he is also a director.

Special CBI Judge O P Saini took Goenka's application on its records and asked the probe agency to respond on June 6.

Vijay Aggarwal, counsel for Goenka, said his client is also a director of real estate firm Siddhivinayak Realties Pvt Ltd and he be allowed to appoint an additional director as he is currently lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with the case.

He said the plea be allowed for smooth functioning of the company. "Kindly permit Goenka to sign the board resolution of the company to appoint an additional director so that the work of company will not suffer due to his unavailability," Aggarwal said.

Goenka, arrested on April 20, is in judicial custody along with 13 other accused including former Telecom Minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and Swan Telecom co-promoter Shahid Usman Balwa. In the first chargesheet, CBI had named Goenka as one of the accused in the spectrum allocation scam.

Goenka along with three top officials of Reliance ADAG, Group President Surendra Pipara, Senior Vice President Hari Nair and Group MD Gautam Doshi, are accused of conspiring with Raja and DoT officials to cause a loss of Rs 30,000 crore to the state by manipulating the first-come-first-served (FCFS) policy

Reliance Industries conceptualising products, services for mobile broadband

Sitting on pan-India spectrum for Broadband Wireless Access for nearly a year, Reliance Industries on Friday said it is in the process of conceptualising the products and services to be offered.

"... The services would be in the domain of education, healthcare, entertainment, financial services and government-citizen interfaces," Mukesh Ambani, the Chairman and MD of RIL, told shareholders at the company's 37th AGM.

Broadband and broadband-enabled digital services are the next big leap forward in the digital transformation of our knowledge economy, he added.

Last year, in June, Mukesh Ambani-led RIL had forayed into the telecom arena with a bang, announcing the acquisition of Infotel, which had emerged as the sole winner of pan-India broadband spectrum, for Rs 4,800 crore. "We foresee the creation and social value via the creation of a national, next generation broadband infrastructure," Ambani said.

RIL had cash and cash-equivalents of Rs 42,393 crore (USD 9.5 billion) as of March 31 this year, which was nearly double the level seen a year ago.

The company had outstanding debt of Rs 67,397 crore (USD 15.1 billion) as of March 31, 2011, as against Rs 62,495 crore (USD 13.9 billion) a year ago.

Ambani further added, "Our digital services business seeks to embrace our society's diverse needs and aspirations by building flexibility, intelligence and extensibility into the core of our infrastructure."

Last year, he had said that RIL would forge several strategic relations with a host of leading global technology players, service providers, infrastructure providers, application developers, device manufacturers and others to leapfrog India into the 4G revolution.

"It will gather momentum and visibility in the coming years and Reliance will be at the forefront of bringing about this digital revolution. A revolution that will help India lead the world," he said

Total number of connected devices to be nearly 15 billion and data traffic to raise by 114-fold by 2015

Network and communications provider Cisco expects mobile data traffic in India to increase 114-fold by 2015, and consumers to download or stream more than 629 hours of video every second on broadband, the company said on Thursday as it shared its global visual networking index forecast.

The explosive growth will occur due to proliferation of tablets, mobile phones and connected appliances, larger number of internet users, faster broadband speeds and more content on video.

According to estimates of the report that charts internet growth and trends, Indian mobile data traffic will augment at a compound annual growth rate of 158%, the company revealed. Cisco anticipates that by 2015 mobile data in the Indian market will be 15 times the volume of the entire Indian Internet in 2010.

Mobile data traffic will ride on the estimated spurt in the number of devices and higher connection speeds. According to Cisco's forecast, India will have more than 1 billion networked devices in four years from now, compared to 570 million in 2010.

The estimate includes mobile phones and tablets and other machine-to-machine connected devices. Globally, Cisco anticipates the total number of connected devices to be nearly 15 billion, more than double of the world's population.

"Growth in Internet data traffic, especially video, creates an opportunity in the years ahead for optimizing and monetising visual, virtual and mobile Internet experiences. As architect of the next-generation Internet, Cisco stands ready to help our customers," said Cisco's vice president of worldwide service provider marketing Suraj Shetty .

Cisco also predicts the average mobile connection speed to grow 56-fold, reaching 1,037 kbps in four years. Globally, mobile Internet data traffic will increase 26 times from 2010 to 2015 while the study indicates Asia-Pacific region taking the top spot from North America by 2015 for generating the most traffic on Internet.

Despite a dismal broadband penetration of a little over 10 million customers, the company forecasts more number of Indians to use the Internet. Traffic over Internet is expected to jump nine-fold by 2015

Greenpeace protests against Airtel's silence on CO2 emissions

Global environment NGO Greenpeace today staged a protest against telco Bharti Airtel for not disclosing the measures taken by the company to lower its carbon emissions, including the shift towards renewable sources of energy to power its network operations.

The latest development comes after TRAI's recommendations in April on fostering environment-friendly telecom policies wherein it suggested measures to reduce dependency on fossil fuel and a format to measure carbon footprint in the telecom network. DoT is now studying these recommendations.

"The company's failure to respond specifically to key issues on their carbon and energy management has left us with no choice but to come here (at protest site) and ask them to act on their professed commitments," Mrinmoy Chattaraj, Campaigner, Climate and Energy, Greenpeace India said.

Greenpeace said it held a meeting with Bharti Airtel's representative after the demonstration but the company representative remained non-committal on their demand.

The environment group has been demanding that airtel should publicly disclose carbon emissions from its entire business operations and establish progressive emission reduction targets.

These include commitment to shift the sourcing of 50 per cent of its energy requirements from renewable energy sources and phasing out diesel usage in its business operations by 2015.

The NGO has called for airtel to catalyse a low-carbon economic growth, by using its brand power to advocate strong policies that promote renewable energy.

Last month, Greenpeace estimated that the diesel consumed by telecom companies for providing power at telecom towers was causing the exchequer an annual loss of about Rs 2,600 crore in the form of subsidy.

Bharti Airtel, the biggest telecom operator in terms of subscriber base, said it has started GreenTowers P7 initiative that aims at reducing diesel usage.

"The GreenTowers P7 programme is scoped for 22,000 tower sites, primarily rural areas having low or no Grid Power availability, out of which 5,500 sites have already been implemented in the first year as part of this 3-year programme," Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

"Once completed, the initiative will reduce diesel consumption by 66 million litres per year with a significant carbon-dioxide reduction of around 1.5 lakhs metric tonnes per year," the statement said.

The company added it has already deployed alternate energy sources at around 1050 sites and saved 6.9 mn litres of diesel and Rs 280 million for the company.

According to the company, its Integrated Power Management System ( IPMS )) and variable speed DC generators (DCDG), has reduced diesel consumption by 1.2 mn litres and already saved Rs 47 million across almost 900 sites

Indian mobile data traffic to increase 114-fold by 2015

Network and communications provider Cisco expects mobile data traffic in India to increase 114-fold by 2015, the company said on Thursday as it shared its global visual networking index forecast.

Indian mobile data traffic will augment at a compound annual growth rate of 158%, the company revealed. Cisco anticipates that by 2015, mobile data in the Indian market will be equivalent to 15 times the volume of the entire Indian Internet in 2005.

Mobile data traffic will ride on the estimated spurt in the number of devices and higher connection speeds. According to Cisco's forecast, India will have more than 1 billion networked devices in four years from now, compared to 570 million in 2010.

The estimate includes mobile phones and tablets and other machine-to-machine connected devices. Globally, Cisco anticipates the total number of connected devices to be nearly 15 billion, more than double of the world's population.

Cisco also predicts the average mobile connection speed to grow 56-fold, reaching 1,037 kbps in four years.

Despite a dismal broadband penetration of a little over 10 million customers, Cisco forecasts more number of Indians to use the Internet. Traffic over Internet is expected to jump nine-fold by 2015 while usage at peak hours will be 15 times more than levels in 2010.

Cisco adds that Indian Internet traffic in 2015 will be equivalent to 53 times the volume of the entire Indian Internet in 2005, Cisco said.

The company foresees 27 lakh people to stream Internet HD video simultaneously on an average day but peak hours would see this number going up more than three times to 90.3 lakh.

Indians would also be able to browse the net, download movies, videos and upload photos faster than before. According to Cisco's estimates, the average broadband speeds in India will grow to 4Mbps by 2015, which is 4.1 times faster than speeds in 2010

Bharti Airtel launches mobile wallet service in Delhi NCR

Bharti Airtel, India's largest telco by revenues and subscribers, launched its mobile wallet service Airtel Money in Delhi NCR on Wednesday, a company official said.

The service allows Airtel customers to make cashless payments from Rs 10 to Rs 5,000 a day for various services such as utility bills and movie tickets. The telco plans to raise the upper threshold to Rs 50,000 within two months, Airtel's m-commerce services chief operating officer Sriram Jagannathan told ET.

Bharti Airtel's scrip rose to 1.95% on BSE, closing at Rs 381.45 on Wednesday.

The service would be available to more than 8 million customers in Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad and will be rolled out in the country in a phased manner.

The telco has tied up with more than 3,000 merchants so far including local chemists, grocery stores and utility providers like BSES Yamuna and Indraprastha Gas . Earlier this year, the service was launched in Gurgaon and Chennai on a pilot basis. Customers can fill their mobile wallet by going to the nearest Airtel retail outlet.

Last year, Airtel's m-commerce service got a licence to use semi-closed wallet by the Reserve Bank of India

Tata Communications plans to bring turnaround in operations of Neotel

Tata Communications, which reported consolidated loss of Rs 854 crore for 2010-11, plans a slew of measures, including turning around operations of Neotel in South Africa , to improve its performance, a senior official of the company said today.

Tata Communications (formerly VSNL) would strive to drive down network costs, focus on productivity gains, address small and medium enterprise space and would provide managed services, top company officials said today.

It also intends to enhance hosting capabilities at its Neotel facility at Cape Town, in South Africa. The capacity expansion would be funded by revenues from its submarine cable business, Tata Communications' chief financial officer Sanjay Baweja said today.

"Neotel will become EBITDA positive this fiscal year. As for Tata Communications, we have begun to address small and medium enterprises. This is a segment which is in the early stages of adopting information technology.

"We will provide network connectivity, virtual private network services, security services, as well as data centre and web hosting services to these enterprises. The company intends to drive down network costs and focus on productivity gains," Tata Communications' managing director and CEO Vinod Kumar said.

The company reported a net loss of Rs 854 crore for 2010-11 which includes a loss of Rs 551 crore on account of company's 49.01 per cent stakeholding in Neotel, South Africa.

The company reported net profit of Rs 160.16 crore for the year on a standalone basis against Rs 483.18 crore in the previous year. Based on the standalone net profit, the board of the company has proposed a dividend of Rs 2 per share

Reliance Communications weighing tower deal proposals

Debt laden Reliance Communications, the country's second largest mobile phone company by customers, said on Tuesday it had received several indicative offers for acquiring a controlling stake in its tower arm - Reliance Infratel , while adding that its board 'has approved taking the process to the next stage of detailed due diligence with a view to completing such a potential transaction at the earliest'.

Weighed down by massive debt load and falling profits, RCOM has been exploring several fund raising options, including selling a 26% stake in its wireless business and a controlling stake in its tower arm.

An earlier deal to hive off the tower business to infrastructure company GTL Infra, which would have helped the company cut its debt by more than half, fell apart in September 2010.

The company's debt stood at Rs 32,048 crore at the year ended March 2011.

On Monday, missed street forecasts to post a bigger than expected 86% decline in quarterly profits, its seventh straight fall, despite call tariffs in the country stabilising over the last 12 months. The telco's net profit fell to Rs 169 crore for the three-months ended March 2011, when compared to Rs 1,220 crore for the corresponding period last year.

At 12:07 am, shares of Reliance Communications were trading 1.54% up at Rs 88.85 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

After the results, its President and CEO (Wireless Business) Syed Safawi would "deleverage its balance sheet" but did not give details on the process.

"No doubt they're taking steps to refinance but the debt issue remains a problem. Unless they go in for a strategic sale - in the telecom or tower business - the problem of debt will linger," said Sangeeta Tripathi, a senior analyst at brokerage firm Sharekhan.

RCOM also cautioned investors that the proposed tower deal was 'only a preliminary disclosure, and any such potential transaction is subject to appropriate due diligence, negotiations, documentation and approvals'

All telecoms gear may have to undergo TEC test before deployment

All shades of telecoms gear will have to shortly undergo mandatory certification by the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC) before deployment in communication networks across India.

The telecoms department will soon expand the Indian Telegraph Rules to include detailed modalities for such mandatory testing and certification.

The onus will be on any original equipment maker (OEM) in the telecoms space to get its products certified before selling them in India.

"Testing shall be carried out by the Telegraph Authority or any other designated agency on payment of a prescribed fee. A suitable test certificate will be issued (to the OEM) if it complies with all parameters of testing and certification," says an internal telecoms department report reviewed by ET.

An internal department panel which is drafting the detailed norms for mandatory testing of telecoms gear is slated to submit its recommendations to the Telecom Commission by June 15. The seven-member panel largely comprises senior officials of the TEC, which is the department's technical wing.

The proposed `Telegraph Authority' is likely to be the TEC, although the telecoms department interim report is yet to spell this out.

Since such certification of telecoms gear will have a validity period, the OEM will need to renew it periodically to continue selling equipment in India.

The Telegraph Authority will also have the powers to issue show cause notices to telcos using uncertified gear and OEMs selling such equipment. Under the amended Indian Telegraph Rules, it will also have powers to confiscate telecom equipment that hasn't been tested or certified. In the event, an errant OEM fails to complete certification formalities even 180 days after being issued a show cause notice, the designated authority may confiscate such uncertified telecom equipment