New Delhi: The failure of Telenor's $3-billion investment in subsidiary Uninor will not only impact India's investment destination image but will also have political repercussions, Norway's Trade Minister Trond Giske said on Saturday. "If this investment fails, I think, it will be fair to say that it will influence the view of India as an investment country," Giske told reporters. "Telenor is not just any company. 54 percent of its...
04:41 AM, May 13, 2012
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday reserved the order on former telecom minister A Raja's bail plea till May 15 in the 2G spectrum scam case. Raja had applied for bail for the first time since he was jailed 15 months ago. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its reply on the bail plea of Raja, opposed his bail. Meanwhile, A Raja's Ramesh Gupta said that they sought...
01:47 PM, May 11, 2012
New Delhi: After spending close to 15 months behind the bars, former telecom minister A Raja will finally begin arguments for his bail applications. Sources say the CBI will oppose his bail but Raja's legal team will seek relief on the following grounds: - Raja has been in jail since February, 2011. Since all his fellow co-accused have been granted bail, so it's about time Raja too was given that...
08:27 AM, May 11, 2012
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura in the 2G spectrum scam case. Behura got the bail on Rs 5 lakh surety and Rs 10 lakh bond. Nineteen individuals, including former telecom minister A Raja, and six companies are accused in the case. Fourteen people were arrested. ...
03:01 PM, May 09, 2012
New Delhi: India offered to grant 4G broadband spectrum to Qualcomm Inc on Tuesday, nearly two years after the US chipmaker paid $1 billion in an auction, but cut its spectrum usage period due to a delay in getting an internet service license. India typically grants radio airwaves for a period of 20 years. In Qualcomm's case, the telecoms ministry cut the validity of the spectrum by 18 months and...
11:42 AM, May 09, 2012
New Delhi: India offered to grant 4G broadband spectrum to Qualcomm Inc on Tuesday, nearly two years after the US chipmaker paid $1 billion in an auction, but cut its spectrum usage period due to a delay in getting an internet service licence. India typically grants radio airwaves for a period of 20 years. In Qualcomm's case, the telecoms ministry cut the validity of the spectrum by 18 months and...
01:11 AM, May 09, 2012
New Delhi: Mobile call rates would double in some circles if the recommendations of sectoral regulator TRAI on spectrum pricing are accepted, telecom CEOs who met Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal warned on Tuesday. "...there will be circles which will have more than a 100 per cent price rise (in tariffs) if they were to absorb the impact of what is being recommended," Bharti Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor told reporters. "In...
04:50 PM, May 08, 2012
New Delhi: A special CBI court will on Thursday begin hearing arguments on charges against Loop Telecom and the Essar Group in 2G spectrum allocation scam case. The court would also take up applications seeking a shield against arrest filed by Essar Group promoters Ravi Ruia and Anshuman Ruia, Loop Telecom promoters IP Khaitan and Kiran Khaitan and Essar group director Essar Group director (strategy and Planning) Vikas Saraf. A...
06:42 AM, May 03, 2012
New Delhi: Television viewers will soon get to choose a minimum of hundred Free to Air (FTA) channels at a maximum retail price of Rs 100, as per new tariff rules for Cable TV announced by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday. According to the regulatory framework for Digitalised Cable TV brought out by TRAI to safeguard consumers' interests, cable operators will have to mandatorily offer a Basic...
09:46 AM, May 01, 2012
Washington: Telecom towers are killing nearly seven million birds every year as they migrate from the US and Canada to Central and South America, says a new study. According to the study, around 84,000 telecom towers, some of which can rise nearly 2,000 feet into the sky, much higher than the Empire State Building at 1,250 feet, dot the two countries. However, the birds are killed not by running into...
12:03 PM, Apr 30, 2012
New Delhi: The CEOs of five telecom companies on Saturday wrote a joint letter to Kapil Sibal seeking an 80 per cent cut in the spectrum reserve price. The CEOs included Sanjay Kapoor, Marten Pieters, Himanshu Kapania, Sigve Brekke and Arvind Bali. In the letter, the CEOs warned high spectrum price will lead to 25-30 per cent tariff hike. They also sought all available spectrum to be auctioned. They warned...
02:28 PM, Apr 28, 2012
New Delhi: An empowered group of ministers (EGoM) will meet on Tuesday next week to discuss telecom regulator TRAI's recommendations on unified licences and auction of spectrum, an official said on Friday. The Telecom Commission, the decision making body of the Telecom Department, will also meet on Monday next week to discuss the TRAI recommendations, the Telecom Ministry official told. "Telecom Commission will discuss TRAI's recommendation, while it will be...
05:32 AM, Apr 28, 2012
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed that a five-member expert committee be set up to recommend guidelines for verifying those applying for prepaid mobile connections. A bench of Chief Justice SH Kapadia, Justice AK Ganguly and Justice Swatanter Kumar, in its judgment, said the committee would be headed by the secretary, department of telecommunications (DoT), and have two members each from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)...
04:30 AM, Apr 28, 2012
New Delhi: Five telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, have written to Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal saying the high cost of airwaves, as recommended by TRAI, can raise mobile tariffs by up to 30 per cent. "It is respectfully submitted that the high cost of spectrum will translate into much a higher tariff for consumers. It is estimated that tariffs will go up by at least 25-30 per cent,"...
03:23 AM, Apr 28, 2012
New Delhi: Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy has again leveled serious charges against Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, alleging that the former's son Karthi Chidambaram's firm Advantage made Rs 26 lakh out of a deal with telecom company Aircel, before its takeover by Maxis. According to Swamy, the transaction occurred when Chidambaram was Finance Minister. He has further said that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) cannot conduct a fair...
02:32 PM, Apr 26, 2012
New Delhi: Unitech Ltd, facing trial in the 2G spectrum allocation case, had readied itself four months in advance with the demand draft to secure the government's letters of intent (LoIs) for grant of radio waves to it, a former executive of the firm told a Delhi Court on Wednesday. Mohit Gupta, who worked as an executive in Unitech Ltd from March 2007 to May 2010, told the court that...
04:59 AM, Apr 26, 2012
If the government implements TRAI suggestion, mobile tariffs could increase. ...
10:09 AM, Apr 24, 2012
Telecom regulator TRAI on Monday proposed a steep minimum price for auction of 2G telecom spectrum, setting off fears of a hike in mobile phone tariffs which are at present among the cheapest in the world. The regulator, whose recommendations are not binding on the government, valued 2G spectrum at about Rs 7 lakh crore, nearly seven times more than Rs 1.04 lakh crore that the government had received through...
09:15 AM, Apr 24, 2012
New Delhi: Terming regulator TRAI's recommendations on spectrum auction as "arbitrary, regressive and inconsistent", telecom operators on Monday said the proposals will hurt further investment in the sector and expansion of services in rural areas. "We believe that several of these recommendations are retrograde and if accepted, will do irreparable harm to the industry," Vodafone India said in a statement. "It will hamper the ability to connect the unconnected and...
03:31 AM, Apr 24, 2012
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has proposed a base price for auction of 2G spectrum that is higher than the 3G auction price set in 2010, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting sources. For the 900 mega hertz band, the telecom regulator has proposed a base price at Rs 7000 crore, which is twice the base price set for a 3G spectrum. For 700 megahertz band, it has been...
05:44 PM, Apr 23, 2012
