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.

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.

As per National Telecom Policy 2012 mobile users in India can avail the free roaming facility from October 2013 as per comment passed by honourable Telecom Minister, Kapil Sibal.

 Again Mr. Sibal does’nt guarantee about the exact dates of launching free roaming service but he is saying it may took place somewhere in the October month. The mobile users can travel all across India & can avail the free or non-chargeable incoming calls from a certain network while moving from their home circles to other neighbour circles.

Already Central Government has approved National Telecom Policy drafted in May 2012 where it states that ”One Nation, One License” which means roaming would be made free to mobile users & was expected then to be put in use by the end of March 2013.

Several major telco operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular were opposing this decision except one operator Reliance & these operators were making serious consultation with Trai & also said that if these new plans were initiated then the operators would be forced to push the gear of outgoing call rates.

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As per some news reports countries like  US, Japan, South Korea, Israel, Belgium and Sweden may be part of some alliance may be formed by the Indian Govt.

The simple reason behind to tie out with such countries, its to invite them in our country & participate in telco operations. So, Kapil Sibal our honourable IT & Communication Minister will visit these countries & explain the need of Telecom Policy.

Already Sibal has started interacting with some representatives of some organization bodies like  the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry & the Confederation of Indian Industry. He is recomending this bodies to help in the matter of evolving our telco sector not only in India but abroad.

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Government has put a 650 crore penalty on the India’s leading telco operator Bharti Airtel for go against the license norms.

50 crore rupees to be imposed on Airtel by DoT on violation of national long-distance (NLD)/international long distance (ILD) licence
conditions in 13 operating circles. This act of violations was issued between year 2000 & 2005.

DoT has also notified Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on the violation issue but Airtel has directly denied that the company is not against the norms. As a result of which the effect is now on BSNL as well as on Government.

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Kapil Sibal our honorable Telecom Minsiter on an inaugration of first lab on SAR(Specific Absorption Rate) of mobile handset measurement to be set up in Mumbai.

He also discussed further plans on auctioning 700 MHz spectrum in the upcoming year i.e. 2014 to offer better internet services with much higher speed in the nation by considering 4G or LTE network.

Already ITU (International Telecom Union) has specified that the 700 MHz band ranges from 698 to 706 MHz

As per Mr. Sibal the cost for setting this unique lab is around 2.5 crore. Basic purpose of this lab to test the different handsets belongs to GSM, CDMA, and WCDMA technology with their electromagnetic radiations. The Telecom Commission in India wants to set up an audit report against these mobile devices.

Again the new SAR lab is capable of measuring non-Ionizing Radio Protection (ICNIRP) limit of 2 Watt per kg measured over 10 gram of tissue & the new standard adopted i.e. 1.6 watt per kg measured over 1 gm of tissue against the norms of International Commission.

Finally Mr. Sibal told some future objectives to start a Next Generation Network (NGN) Lab for Internet Protocol testing purposes.

Recently in a meeting headed by Mr. P Chidambaram in EGoM (Empowered Group of Ministers) decided to reduce the CDMA auction of 800 MHz band by 50 percent.

The price will be 4,500 crore for 25 MHz spectrum in 800 MHz band if it is approved by the cabinet.

Already EGoM has decided to lower the reserve price of CDMA spectrum by 30% in circles like Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka, and Rajasthan. Similarly the price of 900 MHz band is almost twice that of 1800 MHz band which will be conducted in circles like Delhi, Mumbai, and Karnataka.

Again the Govt. has fixed the base price of 800 MHz band spectrum 1.3 times higher than 1800 MHz band spectrum in the auction happened in November 2012 which failed to attract bidders. The pan-India base price for 5 MHz of spectrum in 1800 MHz band was fixed at Rs 14,000 crore.

The November auction earned almost 9,700 crore out  of 40,000 crore as expected by the government.

Similarly  lot of companies who are operating in CDMA band are now suffering. If we take MTS who has over 16 million subscribers. Out of which 1.7 million are that of its data services.

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Vodafone India Monday announced that the telecom regulator’s offer to swap its 900MHz with an 1800MHz network will rate an additional Rs.10,000 crore to the firm which will be approved on to customers. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has suggested reframing – relocation of airwaves in the 900 MHz mainly detained by incumbent and replacement it with frequencies in the 1800 MHz band – when licenses of mobile phone companies come up for replenishment beginning 2014.

Spectrum reallocate to locate additional Rs.10,000 crore cost on Vodafone

“Apart from the write-off of obtainable reserves, it will cost around Rs.10,000 crore to substitute 900MHz with a 1800MHz network,” Vodafone said in a letter to Communications Minister Kapil Sibal. “The asset to restore the offered 900MHz network will mean added cost burden for the operator which will explain into higher tariffs for consumers,” it added.

The firm said the quantity could have been improved utilized to enlarge network into new geographies. “We guess that if these expenses were redirected to investment in our network then we could offer coverage to around 50,000 additional villages. This is a much improved use of our capital and a huge lost opportunity for the country.”

Vodafone recommended the government should ask the supervisor to bear out a thorough study of the matter concerned in re-farming in discussion with the stakeholders. Vodafone has 10 circles coming up for license expansion in 2014 and 2015. These circles symbolize around 65 percent of Vodafone India’s total mobile subscriber base of 150 million and donate 65-70 percent of Vodafone’s total rural subscriber base of 60 million. The firm has start-up spectrum in the 900MHz band in each of these circles. This spectrum forms the foundation of the networks organize. The total investment in the network in these 10 circles to date is around Rs.16,700 crore.

Referring to the policy and licence provisions with esteem to extension of license, Vodafone has also said that an expansion of license without the expansion of the spectrum allocations which are inherent to the license would be a “meaningless exercise.”

“This would also be beside the very concept of ‘continuity’ that is enshrining in the policy as well as the licence.”

It has also said that conservatory of licences with a different type and quantum of spectrum was officially flawed and said that the mobile authorize were already technology neutral. “Our licences are already technology neutral the government has permitted us to deploy any technology in our allocated spectrum.”

Operators persist to express their apprehension over the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) guidelines on Auction of Spectrum.

Operators inscribe to Sibal over TRAI’s recommendation on the Auction of Spectrum

As per news reports, the top executives of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Uninor, Videocon and Idea Cellular have written to Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communications and IT in this circumstance.

It is alleged that the correspondence states that the guidelines are “retrograde” and requirements the Minister to refuse the same.

The communication also asks the Minister to authorize the auctioning of variety in the 1800 MHz band and the conserve price be compressed by 80 per cent. The operators also allegedly stated that the suggested price of spectrum may guide to a 25-30 per cent amplify in call tariffs and that the recommended preserve price for the other bands was quite elevated and idealistic.

Another point of argument was TRAI’s submission to reallocate spectrum in the 900 MHz band, on grounds that the regulator had not observe the various aspects of this proposal before framing its suggestion. Also, they said that this step may direct to drop in the excellence of services and an enlarge in the price of given that these services.

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For all the fanfare that convoy the begin of the Aakash tablet, only 366 units of the tablet have accomplish students. The units were specified to students at the time of the commence on October 5 so that they might test them and offer their feedback. The information may not be extensively known but it has been in the public domain since March 14 when minister for human resource growth Kapil Sibal replied to a question about the Aakash project in Lok Sabha.

These 366 tablets are part of 650 units that IIT Rajasthan had accepted from the lot of 6,440 tablets that were supplied to it by Datawind. According to Sibal’s statement in Parliament, IIT-Rajasthan “rejected rest of the lots as the number of defective LCADs (Aakash tablets) in those lots exceeded the stipulated 5% of devices”.

In reply to a question if there was any criteria based on which distribution was made, Sibal said the tablets were just for the testing. “The first phase of 1,00,000 tablets were targeted to the students in higher technical education institutions so as to further ascertain technical feedback on its operation and usability,” he said. “Since these LCADs were for the purpose of testing, no norms for distribution of LCADs to students were laid down.” The minister also informed Parliament that Datawind has now been asked to supply better tablets at the same price.

“Datawind is still to supply 1,00,000 LCADs of higher specifications at the same price. These higher specifications (which include 700 MHz Cortex A8 processor, 3200 mAH Battery and capacitive touch screen) have been necessitated to overcome the initial difficulties observed in the devices,” he said.

The minister was also asked what the government was doing to recover the money back. “No payment has yet been made by IIT-Rajasthan to the vendor (Datawind), and hence, the question of getting back the money does not arise,” he said. A few weeks earlier, Datawind CEO had told TOI that his firm would start supplying the new tablets this month.

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