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Regulator Trai is examining the pricing issue that telecom operators are facing for deploying network in and around Adani Group-backed Navi Mumbai International Airport, a top official said on Wednesday. Trai Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti said industry body COAI has approached it for intervention, and the regulator has sought more details around the price that telecom operators have paid in the past for setting up networks. "The letter that COAI has written has raised four issues. Three of those pertain to right-of-way. There is one issue regarding the pricing. We have asked for certain details from COAI regarding how they have entered into agreements in the past. We will study those, and then we will take further action," Lahoti said. He said that the Telecom Regulator Authority of India will not require any specific reference from the government, and it can suo-moto proceed on the matter based on reference received from the Cellular Operators Association of India. Right-of-way (RoW)
Telecom industry body COAI has defended service providers' call to increase mobile tariff citing continuous widening of gap between their expense on network deployment and revenue earned by them in return. While speaking at India Mobile Congress, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), Director General, SP Kochhar told PTI that the government has supported a lot to telecom operators with policies like right of way (RoW) but still several authorities continue to charge exorbitant fees for laying network elements. "Earlier, the gap until 2024 for infrastructure development and revenue received from tariffs was around Rs 10,000 crore. Now it has started increasing even further. Our cost of rolling out networks should be reduced by a reduction in the price of spectrum, levies etc. "The Centre has come out with a very good ROW policy. It is a different matter that many people have not yet fallen in line and are still charging extremely high," Kochhar said. He defended the cut do
Telecom service providers must rethink providing connectivity not as a commodity but as a constitutional commitment keeping in mind key factors like affordability, availability, accessibility with blazing data speeds, Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Tuesday. While speaking at an event organised by internet service providers body ISPAI and government-backed Nixi, the minister said five days ago India has moved from being the 5th largest economy in the world to become the 4th largest, and he takes pride in representing telecom which is growing at compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14 to 16 per cent as well as with the CAGR of 12-13 per cent in northeast. "You are the engineers of equity. You are the builders of bridges. And you are the keepers of the digital flame of India. Reimagine connectivity not necessarily as a commodity but a constitutional commitment," the minister said. He asked telecom operators and internet service providers (ISP) to follow six foundational .
Telecom operators will have to compensate subscribers in case of service outages for more than 24 hours at a district level under the new quality of service rules issued by the sector regulator Trai on Friday. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has also increased the penal amount to Rs 1 lakh from Rs 50,000 for failing to meet each quality benchmark under the new rules. The regulator has introduced a graded penalty system of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 2 lakh, Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh for different scales of rule violations under revised regulations --"The Standards of Quality of Service of Access (Wirelines and Wireless) and Broadband (Wireline and Wireless) Service Regulations, 2024". The new norms supersede three different regulations -- Quality of Service (QoS) for basic and cellular mobile services, broadband services, and broadband wireless services. In case of a network outage in a district, telecom operators will need to provide a rebate on rent for postpaid customers and .