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| Friday, February 27, 2009 |
| TRAI Recommendations for MVNO + DoT's Acceptance |
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India long needed MVNOs. We had covered the benefits and need of MVNO in India few days ago. Lets look at what were the TRAIs recommendations that were accepted by the DoT for MVNOs in India. MNO = Wireless Operator = Mobile Network Operator.
- MNO should pay spectrum charges also on the revenue of MVNO(s) or all the payments made by MVNO(s) to MNO, whichever is higher.
- The subscribers of MVNO(s) should be counted towards parent MNO for the purpose of spectrum allotment in bands where subscriber based criterion is applicable for spectrum allotment.
- The commercial model covering the nature of relationship including the arrangement/
agreement between MNO and MVNO shall be left to the market forces. - There should not be any limit to the number of MVNOs attached to a MNO. However a MVNO cannot get attached to more than one MNO in the same service area.
- The subscribers of MVNO(s) should be counted towards parent MNO for the purpose of spectrum allotment in bands where subscriber based criterion is applicable for spectrum allotment.
- In any service area, an equity holder, having 10% or more equity in a MVNO cannot hold 10% or more equity in another MVNO / MNO.
- Entry Fees: Rs. 50 Mn for Metros and Category 'A', Rs. 30 Mn for Category 'B' and Rs. 10 Mn for Category 'C' with a license duration of 20 years.
The DoT has accepted the above recommendations and has given a Green Signal to launch their operations in India. Tata Indicom's Franchisee, Virgin Mobile is likely to convert itself into a MVNO. |
Published on Friday, February 27, 2009 at 12:24 PM  |
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| Thursday, February 26, 2009 |
| Tata Communications Tier-3 data centre in EMEA Market |
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Tata Communications has launched London 2, a Tier-3 data centre that will provide a high-tech environment for supporting mission critical infrastructures.
The 21,400 square feet (1,988 square meters) London 2 data centre having highly resilient, individually segregated, concurrently maintainable data halls, will be ready for service during the second quarter of 2009. The data centre is a fully secure facility that provides colocation and managed hosting services.
The facility is supported by an experienced team of technical, communications and facilities staff. It will have superior cooling, power, redundancy, and sustainability features to make sure that the company’s client's critical systems and applications are readily available while optimizing energy efficiency. This apart, the centre has 24 x 7 x 365 on-site security with Security Management System (SMS) integrated with the site.
The compan's global network connectivity is available for public and private access needs. Additional third party carriers provide diverse routes into the building and have a presence in the surrounding area. |
| Published on Thursday, February 26, 2009 at 1:55 PM |
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| Wednesday, February 18, 2009 |
| 3G auction possible by March 31 - Minister |
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Giving a hope for an early start of third generation (3G) telecom services in the country, telecom minister A Raja on Tuesday said that it was possible to hold spectrum auctions by March 31. However, the finance ministry in its interim budget has only talked of 3G auctions in only the next fiscal. Finance Ministry has made revenue projections from 3G Auction for FY09-10 and the amount has been now halved due to the current economic scenario.
The minister, however, believes that there was time till March 31 and during that a window of opportunity can still be found. The auction was delayed after the pricing difference between finance and telecom ministries came to fore front. Currently, the matter is pending with a Group of Ministers which will finalize the modalities.
However, it looks that despite the enthusiasm of telecom minister, the issue is not on government’s priority which is heading into general elections in May and would like to avoid any issue that may give opposition an opportunity of criticism. |
| Published on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 10:59 AM |
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| Friday, February 13, 2009 |
| Tata Indicom Commodity Prices for Rural Folks |
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Tata Teleservices / Indicom has launched a new value added service (VAS) in association with Impetus Technologies.
This service will provide real-time information on price of commodities thereby helping the agrarian community.
Under this, spot prices from approximate 3,000 local commodity markets across the country for about 500 major commodities will be displayed on the handsets of Tata Indicom subscribers for a monthly charge of Rs 30.
This service is available in various languages including Hindi, Marathi and English and in various platforms like J2ME, BREW, WAP and SMS.
The application would be of great use for farmers and commodity traders as they would get the daily spot rates of commodities of their interest, which would in turn help them to maximize their earnings. |
| Published on Friday, February 13, 2009 at 5:13 PM |
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| Tuesday, February 10, 2009 |
| CDMA players to match highest GSM bidder in 3G auction |
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In a move that will affect the CDMA operators in India, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) CDMA operators will have to match the highest bid by their GSM counterparts during the forthcoming third generation (3G) spectrum auction.
3G spectrum is vital for providing high-end telecom services such like video conferencing, high-speed internet and audio-video streaming. Since there are less number of players in the CDMA space, the bidding was expected to be less aggressive in this segment compared with the GSM domain where there are already more than double the number of Indian players and some foreign players are also expected to try their luck in the auction.
Keeping this in mind, the telecom regulator has recommended to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that CDMA players should be made to match the highest price paid by GSM operators. This will help ensure that cost of spectrum remains proportional for both the platforms.
Actual cost to both the segments will still be different as both use different technology platforms and have different spectrum requirements. While the successful bidders in GSM domain will get 5 MHz of in the 2.1 GHz, CDMA players will get 1.25 MHz of spectrum in the 800 MHz band. Thus, CDMA players will still end up paying 25% of the highest bidder in GSM segment. |
| Published on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 12:29 PM |
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| Thursday, February 05, 2009 |
| MTNL to launch 3G mobile services today |
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Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd - MTNL is all set to launch its third generation (3G) mobile services commercially on February 5, 2009. The company will compete with Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices in India.
Motorola is setting up the core network for MTNL for this roll out. The services will be initially floated in central Delhi, and will later be extended to Gurgaon.
The company is hoping that a larger part of its revenues will be generated from new services such as IPTV, broadband and 3G this year. In the next generation bouquet of offerings, MTNL has 15,000 IPTV subscribers in the two telecom circles - Delhi and Mumbai. |
| Published on Thursday, February 05, 2009 at 11:39 AM |
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| Tuesday, February 03, 2009 |
| Calling Cards a Reality - No VoIP Yet |
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Last week we had covered about TRAI criticizing the DoT for not taking up the issue of Intra Operator NLD by means of Calling Cards and VoIP Inland long distance services.
Today, the Telecom Commission has given the necessary approval and the DoT will very soon allow NLD / STD Calling Cards to be retailed. However, due to Toll FREE Number incompatibility in India, it will remain a challenge to calling card service providers to get users on the platform as they have to make a local call and then the STD / NLD. Large B2B Bandwidth carriers like RailTel, Powergrid, AT&T, Verizon Business Services will benefit from the Calling Card regime.
The Telecom Commission ruling has come at a stage when it doesn't make much difference as STD calls are already Rs 1.0 / minute on most mobile networks with a Rs 35 or Rs 50 add on Pack every month. It will make sense if user is given an option to dial a toll FREE number and from there make an STD call at Rs 0.5 / minute.
The Telecom Commission has not approved inland VoIP / Net Calling services. Its the Telecom lobby that raised its voice against inland VoIP services. Had they approved this, they would have done something good for the consumers, but who cares :-) |
| Published on Tuesday, February 03, 2009 at 12:41 PM |
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