Recent sources has confirmed that DoT has asked Tata Teleservices to vacate the additional CDMA spectrum in the different circles across India except Delhi & Mumbai with the other telco operators.

DoT sources has stated that the Telco body may request TTL to surrender its one 1.25  MHz of CDMA spectrum in all respected service areas except Mumbai & Delhi without any such reason.

The reason behind the steps taken by DoT to ask the operators to give up their additional spectrum is mainly because government has impose one time access fee for the airwaves holding beyond the limit that was assigned to it for resuming the wireless network services.

The company will not surrender the extra spectrum as per DoT demanded, the company will wait for the final results of the petition held up before  Kolkata High Court and Bombay High Court. As a result of which ”DoT would be bound to restore forthwith the surrendered spectrum in the event DoT actions are held invalid”.

120 days time frame has been asked by the company before surrendering its CDMA spectrum & re-organise its network, since the DoT may ask the company to impose one time spectrum fee.

Rs. 1,155 crore is the one-time spectrum fee imposed on TTSL’s CDMA license.

Already the company has paid 63 crore rs as an installment fee for holding up the additional license in Delhi & Mumbai circle as a protests to the Government.

Extension of permits means Unified License to be obtained by the telecom operators to continue their services & also to buy new spectrum in their respective circles.

Kapil Sibal the telco minister commented when the operators like Vodafone, Airtel & Loop attempt to extend their licenses in certain circles ”Today the regime has changed licences and spectrum are two separate things. Previously, the spectrum was with the licence at cost of Rs. 1,658 crore. The licence can continue but spectrum on terms of Supreme Court judgement you have to buy.”

Already DoT has told Vodafone & Loop that their licenses could not be widespread since their licenses will be renewed again in 2014. Again the companies wants to continue their services in those circles then they have to bid for the respective airwaves by saying it to the Bharti Airtel.

8-10 days is the minimum time required to start the process of obtaining Unified License for the companies as per comment came from Kapil Sibal.

8 Mhz held by Bharti Airtel and Vodafone each in Delhi circle; 8 Mhz each of Loop Mobile and Vodafone in Mumbai; and in Kolkata 6.2 Mhz spectrum of Bharti Airtel and 7.8 Mhz of Vodafone that is due for renewal in 2014 were the 900 MHz spectrum identified for auction.

Vodafone’s telecom license in major circles like Delhi, Mumbai & Kolkata has been rejected from DoT as a plea to extend their licenses.

The company commented that “deeply disappointed with the summary rejection of its request for extension of its licenses in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata service areas by DoT”, adding that the decision “is against the interests of our several million customers in these cities/circles”.

Similar request from Bharti Airtel has been rejected as well confirmed by the top level ministry.

Vodafone said in a statement that there is no such acknowledgement from DoT’s end of full & faithful operation ib this 18 years license & also being the pioneer to enter into this market where there was no concept of mobile telephony in India by spending around thousands of crores to create such network.

 Meanwhile the application of extending the telco licenses were pending & at the same time Airtel, Loop & Vodafone challenged the Govt.’s decision to auction the 900 MHz spectrum.

As per clause 4.1 the govt. can extend the validity of license by 10 years at one time  only if the request arose from the operator end in the 19th year of the license period.

 Govt. was planning to sold the remaining blocks of 1800 MHz airwaves but none of the companies take part in the auction happened in March 11 & also the renewal process of 900 MHz band airwaves to be take place from 2014 onwards.

Recently Trai has recomended FDD technology for Govt before deploying 700 MHz 4G premium services in India & must be followed from diferent telecom operators end.

 Globaly FDD-LTE is the most predominant technology, but in India some operators have launched 4G services via. TD-LTE technology. Of which Bharti Airtel has deployed 4G services via TD-LTE technology & soon Videocon another telco operator will deploy 4G services via FDD-LTE technology.

Again Trai has recomended all Indian operators to use 700 MHz spectrum band (698-806 MHz) with FDD based 2×45 MHz frequency arrangement.

On 19th August 2011 Trai has issued IMT, ‘Advanced Mobile Wireless Broadband Services’ Consultation paper to know the stakeholders view & make the way for IMT.

 Trai commented by saying that “Some of these issues, which were mainly regulatory in nature, got covered in the recommendation on ‘Auction of Spectrum’ dated 23rd April, 2012.”

   Single Phone number like 100 or 108 to be used in India for emergency purposes like dialing police or fire or ambulance as per recent public comments.

100 for police, 101 for fire, 102 for ambulance and 108 for emergency disaster management were the current emergency numbers used in India.

911 in USA, 999 in UK and 000 in Australia were the single digit emergency numbers used in ths different countries.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is already consulting based on the research paper of Universal Single Number Based Integrated Emergency Communication and Response System (IECRS) to finalize 100 or 108 as an emergency number.

 If we take 100 as a suitable candidate for emergency number then we want to know its importance since this number is used nationwide for calling the police related services.

Similarly, if we choose 108 as a suitable candidate for emergency number position then it also possess some strong importance like EMRI ( Emergency Management and Research Institute) across more than ten states is being used.

 Primary or secondary access numbers should be there as per Trai’s thinking policy as like IECRS in the country on the lines of other countries.

”112 in Australia (in addition to 000) &  112 in UK (in addition to 999) were some of the secondary emergency numbers exists,Calls from this number are again routed to primary response numbers in these countries,” as per Trai comments.

Few questions still arises towards Trai’s end like inactive SIMs or handsets without SIMs can be used to dial an emergency number & for IECRS implementation how funding cost will be provided.

 3G roaming services to be stopped as per new Govt. order in six major circles in India like Kolkata, Maharastra, Uttar Pradesh East, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana to one of India’s largest mobile service provider i.e. Bharti Airtel & put a penalty of 350 cr rupees.

Partnership was formed by India’s three major telco’s like Idea Cellular, Vodafone & Bharti Airtel to offer G services in pan India regions where they do not possess licenses but after intervention from DoT this matter came in front, but these operators were not following orders rather putting questions.

 Already Airtel has applied to the court to put an stay order on this matter & 18th is the hearing date so if this matter does not get relief then shutting down of 3G services in those 7 circles will immediately put into effect.

 Vodafone India & Idea Cellular will be soon following the above order.

 Reliance Communication with their CDMA EVDO service & Reliance Infocom with their upcoming 4G service will sure take the advantage on the cancellation of 3G roaming licenses.

 Rs. 9,636.34 crore is the outstanding amount for spectrum license & charge fee owed by the govt. from telco operators end & was du=irectly informed to Parliament.

Rs. 3,275.56 for spectrum usage charges and licence fee was the largest amount owned by major private telco operator Bharti Airtel soon followed by Rs. 2,092.95 crore amount of state-owned BSNl, Rs. 1,656.23 crore is the third largest amount fallen into the hands of RCom, Rs. 1,122.01 crore amount belongs to the Vodafone, Rs. 458.32 crore amount belongs to Tata Teleservices, Rs. 428.06 crore amount remains from Idea Cellular end & others, the Minister of State for Communication and IT Milind Deora has written a letter to the Lok Sabha.

 Rs. 2,199.73 crore is the penalty fee on outstanding charges imposed by the Govt.

In 2012-13 Govt. earned Rs. 6,889.28 crore from spectrum usage charges combining  auction money of 2G spectrum of around Rs 1,706.92 crore & license fee of around  Rs. 8,540.71 crore for first three quarters of the ongoing fiscal.

 11,413.23 crore were the total license fee & Rs. 4,856.05 crore were the spectrum usage charges during the previous fiscal.

Rs. 23,177.65 crore for one-time spectrum charges for spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz in respect of GSM spectrum is owed to the govt. by different telco operators a per Deora.

The Delhi High Court order sought a rule of prohibiting mobile service provider from moving into 3g intra-circle roaming agreement.

Another clause of indent was added to mobile operators as per telecom department in unified license 3G spectrum couldn’t be shared between any telecom operators.

The plea raised by the Idea Cellular Ltd on the Govt. moves on the seven circles where it brought 2G spectrum.

“UL(AS) does not permit provisioning of 3G service using the 3G spectrum of any other service provider using any kind of arrangement,” as per rule given by the Govt.

 Senior Advocate Maninder Singh appearing for the Idea Cellular told that earlier in an intra roaming agreement operators can mutually operate on those circles where they do not possess license & over a year this process was taking place & Govt. was silent on it.

 ”As per the previous licence conditions, 3G roaming was not permitted. This ambiguity cannot be carried forward and, therefore, it has been stated in the new licences that are being issued,” as per commented by Additional Solicitor General Rajeeve Mehra. 

Recently no penalty has been imposed to telco operators on the MNP issue when subscribers want to switch from one operator to other the request get rejects & in most of the cases service providers are not following the rules & already Parliament has informed about this matter today.

 As per Telecommunications Mobile Number Portability (Fourth Amendment) regulations, held in Sep’2012 under which operators will be imposed to financial dis-incentives for unjustified rejection of porting requests.

Bharti Airtel (37,16,966), Vodafone (27,63,957), Idea/Spice (21,05,882), Tata TeleServices Limited (GSM) (8,74,468), Aircel (8,21,917), Reliance Communication Limited (GSM) (8,00,567) among others were the data available between November 2010 and February 25, 2013 where users have raised port out complaints.

By October 2013 Govt. is planning to roll out Nation Wide Mobile Number Portability as per NTP 2012. Again implementation of MNP will bring competitions among  subscribers & also put some incredible choices in the hands of subscribers to select their own network.

NTP documents also state that telco operators will force to provide affordable and competitive tariffs.

Already in pre-consultation paper Trai had insisted to take some inputs from stakeholders on national roaming services tariffs which includes call rates component cost & way to recover cost when incoming calls made free, tariff for video & sms roaming, special permission to be taken for applying any special roaming tariff.

 As per decision taken earlier in 22 circles this MNP had already been implemented in 2011 that allows users to retain their own number by switching to another operator & since different service providers is engaged in paying different charges like termination and interconnect charges for calls to other networks which are ultimately pu to the shoulders of the mobile customers.

 Already as per earlier plan Govt. was planning to roll out nationwide MNP in Feb’2013, which was postponed due to the delay in abolishing roaming charges.