Policy

Telcos Ask TRAI To Fix Channel Price For IPTV - 0 Comments
Posted By Cerius Shah - Sun 04 May 2008 11:30 PM PST

More projected pain for broadcasters as Telco’s looking to offer IPTV services have called on TRAI to fix channel prices reports ET, almost a month after DTH operators did the…

Images Multimedia Group Gets FIPB Approval For Rs. 33.37 Crores - 0 Comments
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Fri 02 May 2008 06:29 AM PST

Delhi based Images Multimedia group has received a clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board for bringing in a foreign direct investment (FDI) of Rs. 33.37 crore, for a dilution…

Telco Roundup: M&A Guidelines; TRAI Recommends Increase In FDI In News Broadcasting - 0 Comments
Posted By Cerius Shah - Sun 27 Apr 2008 02:21 AM PST

-- The DoT has issued M&A Guidelines for telecom licenses, stating that no merger and acquisition will be allowed if as a result of which the number of service providers…

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Videocon To Partner With South African Telco MTN For GSM Business: Report - 0 Comments
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Thu 24 Apr 2008 02:16 AM PST

Electronic Goods major Videocon Industries is close to inking a deal with South African telecom co MTN Group as a partner for its telecom operations in India, reports Business Standard.…

Telecom Roundup: Rural Discount; Do Not Call Update; Spectrum Revenue; Monitoring - 0 Comments
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Tue 22 Apr 2008 04:06 AM PST

The Great Indian Subscriber Grab continues: the Hindu reports that mobile operators are offering all rural subscribers a discount of Rs. 125 (Rs. 50 upfront, and Rs. 75 as talktime);…

India Considering A BBC-Like Global TV Channel - 1 Comment
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Mon 21 Apr 2008 08:44 AM PST

The Indian government is mulling a global television channel on the lines of the BBC, reports ET. The idea is “the voice of India is heard and appreciated by the…

DoT Terminates 35 ISP Licences; Are They To Blame For Lack On Internet Penetration? - 1 Comment
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Sun 20 Apr 2008 11:53 PM PST

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has terminated the licenses of 35 companies which never launched ISP services. Some of these include Discovery Infoways, Q-Net Infosystems, Netconnect (India), Infinity.com, KTV Net.…

TRAI Proposes New Entity For Mobile Number Portability Management - 0 Comments
Posted By Cerius Shah - Sun 13 Apr 2008 01:00 PM PST

The TRAI has released its draft proposal (pdf) for implementation of Mobile Number Portability. As per the document, MNP is to be introduced from June 2009, almost after an one…

India Needs Product Focus, Reduce Mobile Tarrifs Says New MoS, IT & Communication - 2 Comments
Posted By Cerius Shah - Thu 10 Apr 2008 10:45 PM PST

Jyotiraditya Scindia, the 37 year old Stanford educated Scindia family scion has been appointed Ministry of State for Communications and Information Technology. Besides favouring a further reduction in mobile telecom…

Airtel, Reliance, Zee, BCCL, NDTV And Mobile2Win On FDI Limits In Media And Telecom - 2 Comments
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Fri 04 Apr 2008 12:28 AM PST

In response to queries regarding foreign investment in Broadcast and Telecom sectors - with an eye on convergence - stakeholders have submitted their comments to the TRAI. On the key…

@FICCI Frames: Asha Swarup, Secretary Ministry Of I&B On Mobile TV, Copyright And Optical Disk Law - 1 Comment
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Tue 25 Mar 2008 01:19 AM PST

Mobile TV: We have received recommendations from TRAI. The issue is of opening of the terrestrial networks - it involves Prasar Bharti and they have to be on board. Spectrum…

Content Owners Join Forces To Combat Low Revenue Shares, Piracy - 2 Comments
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Wed 19 Mar 2008 06:14 AM PST

This could be a key event for content providers in India. Three industry bodies - Film and Television Producers Guild of India (FTPGI), the Indian Music Industry (IMI) and ASSOCHAM…

Number Portability Recommendations By End Of Month - 1 Comment
Posted By Cerius Shah - Tue 18 Mar 2008 09:50 AM PST

Respite for those who have been tolerating their service providers in hope of retaining their numbers. The second coming is near. TRAI has said it will submit recommendations for MNP…

TRAI To Penalize Operators For Unsolicited Calls; DoT Considers “Do Call Registry” - 3 Comments
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Tue 18 Mar 2008 02:09 AM PST

Many of our readers agreed that India’s Do Not Call Registry is a failure; despite registering, consumers continue to receive unsolicited calls and messages. Over the past couple of months,…

BlackBerry Services In India Raise Security Concerns - 1 Comment
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Mon 10 Mar 2008 03:38 AM PST

What is that they say about throwing out the baby with the bathwater? Concerns around security concerns have become a cause for concern for mobile operators and Blackberry users in…

DoT May Consider Allowing MVNOs; Virgin Gets 500 Subs In Two Days - 3 Comments
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Fri 07 Mar 2008 08:52 AM PST

The Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura has said that that they’re not going to vet the Virgin Mobile=Tata Teleservices deal - they’ve only asked for information because some objections had been…

DoT Committee Restricts Web Based SMS? - 0 Comments
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Fri 07 Mar 2008 04:40 AM PST

Update: You may download the DoT order here (pdf), courtesy one of our readers who wishes to remain anonymous. Looks like FE interpreted the document incorrectly. (Original Story) A committee…

With An Eye On Convergence, Indian Government To Review Foreign Investment Limits In Media - 0 Comments
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Wed 05 Mar 2008 09:11 AM PST

The convergence of broadcasting and telecom is making the Indian government take another look at policy - specifically, the Foreign Investment limits that govern the sectors. As we’ve mentioned before…

The Union Budget 2008: Games More Expensive; E-Governance; Data Cards; Set Top Boxes - 8 Comments
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Thu 28 Feb 2008 11:34 PM PST

Updated with inputs from the Budget, speech available ( here), other documents here. From the Union Budget 2008: e-governance: The finance minister just announced an increased allocation to the Department…

Telecom Roundup: Reliance, TATA Announce International Partnerships, New Licenses, Return Of The Spe - 0 Comments
Posted By Rafat Ali - Wed 27 Feb 2008 08:37 AM PST

[by Cerius Shah]—Reliance Globalcom, the newly formed consolidated entity we recently covered, has struck a deal with Du, a telco based out of the UAE. The deal will include Reliance…

YouTube Down For Two Hours After Pakistan Blockade - 1 Comment
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Tue 26 Feb 2008 04:55 AM PST

[by Cerius Shah] As a result of the Pakistan’s Telecommunications Authority’s (PTA) ban on Youtube there was a worldwide outage of the video sharing behemoth for around 2 hours. Pakistan…

Free Internet On Shatabdi, Rajdhani Trains? - 1 Comment
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Thu 14 Feb 2008 09:59 PM PST

I wonder when the announcements will be followed up with actual deployment: Business Standard reports that the Indian Railways is expectged to launch free Internet on select Rajdhani and Shatabdi…

Law Ministry Turns Down TRAIs Proposal To Regulate PC To PC Internet Telephony - 0 Comments
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Tue 12 Feb 2008 05:31 AM PST

The Law Ministry has nuked TRAI’s recommendation of allowing foreign internet telephony firms to register in India and host their services in the country. The recommendations sought to get foreign…

Eye On New Media Revenues, Indian Producers Want Copyright Life Extended - 1 Comment
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Mon 11 Feb 2008 01:21 AM PST

Eying revenues from new revenue streams like the Internet, mobile and with the advent of multipleses, FICCI and Bollywood production companies are pushing to get the copyright of films extended…

Details Of India’s National E-Governance Plan - 1 Comment
Posted By Nikhil Pahwa - Wed 06 Feb 2008 11:16 PM PST

IT For Change has compiled list of list of documents detailing the rollout of the National E-Governance Plan (NeGP), which involves a massive rollout of the Common Services Centres (CSCs).…