Page 7 - Telecom Industry

National Broadband Mission 2.0, Sanchar Sathi app launched by DoT

DoT allows intra-circle roaming at Digital Bharat Nidhi-funded towers

New undersea cables activation to push data transmission capacity: Trai

India's data transmission capacity is expected to grow four times with the activation of new submarine cables due in 2025 that connect the country to several key markets of the world, Trai Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti said on Friday. While speaking at a telecom industry event Digicom Summit, he said India plays a key role in the global submarine cable network as it hosts around 17 international subsea cables across 17 district landing stations. "As of the end of 2023, the total lit capacity and activity and activated capacity of these cables stood at 180 TBPS (terabit per second) and 132 TBPS, respectively. Multiple next-generation systems are due to become operational in 2025, replacing ageing cables. Once the new systems are fully operational, India's data transmission capacity is projected to quadruple with additional crucial routes," Lahoti said. He said that telecom services are the backbone of the digital economy and industry is playing a critical role in supporting its ...

Availability of more spectrum will improve mobile services: COAI DG Kochhar

The government's decision to make more spectrum available for mobile telephony will improve services for the common man, industry body COAI said on Friday. The cabinet has approved refarming of 687 Mhz of spectrum for telecom services which will be made available to the industry in phases by 2028-29. The "government has accepted the industry's requirement of 2000 Mhz of spectrum for mobile services. They have given us around 400 Mhz of spectrum and the (telecom) minister (Jyotiraditya Scindia) has promised us that this is not the end of it and you will get more. This will improve utilisation and services...to the common man," COAI Director General SP Kochhar said. Scindia at an event organised by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) shared that the Cabinet has approved the refarming of 687 Mhz spectrum for mobile services and more will be done based on the study by a committee of secretaries put in place by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said initially 320 Mhz will

DoT launches fraud reporting Sanchar Saathi mobile app: What is it

Originally launched in May 2023, the Sanchar Saathi portal allows users to directly flag such incidents from their call logs

Telecom spectrum in 6-Ghz band key to avoid 5G radio wave crunch: COAI

Non-allocation of telecom spectrum in 6-Ghz band could lead to a radio wave crunch for high-speed 5G services, a key growth driver for the country's digital economy and development of emerging technologies specially artificial intelligence, industry body COAI said on Tuesday. India needs an additional 2 giga hertz of mid-band spectrum to meet the international standard of 'IMT-2020' user experience to ensure data rates of 100 megabit per second (mbps) on downlink and 50 mbps on uplink in densely-populated cities, COAI Director General S P Kochhar told PTI, citing global telecom industry GSMA. "While the government is considering vacating the spectrum in C-band, i.e., 3,670-4,000 MHz for 5G/6G use, it may not be enough to reach the required 2 GHz spectrum for IMT (5G/6G) in mid-band. Therefore, we want to stress on the fact that it is essential that the most optimal allocation of the 1,200 MHz available in the 6 GHz band is done for mobile communications in India, to get this critical

Reliance Jio ramps up AirFiber for faster 5G monetisation before 2025 IPO

Reliance Jio targets one million monthly AirFiber additions to boost 5G monetisation, with ARPU growth and subscriber expansion driving momentum ahead of a potential late-2025 IPO

ARPUs to rise, user churn to subside for telcos in Q3FY25, say analysts

Rising data usage, premiumisation may push existing users towards postpaid in FY26

Impact of July's tariff hike by telcos almost over, analysts believe

While overall subscriptions are down, active subscribers have risen since July

Banks compliant with Trai's new regulations on message traceability

According to senior public sector bank executives, all the mobile phone numbers are white-labelled for call centres, and compliances are in place as far as large commercial banks are concerned

Consumer affairs ministry to issue guidelines to curb pesky calls, messages

Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare on Friday said the department will soon issue guidelines for the prevention of spam calls and messages to safeguard consumers' interests. In June, the Department of Consumer Affairs came out with draft guidelines to address the issue of pesky/promotional or unsolicited commercial calls received by consumers. "The Department of Consumer Affairs had started working on prevention of pesky calls, and we had to engage with all the stakeholders in this," Khare told reporters on the sidelines of a CII event here. The Department of Telecommunications was also coming out with rules, he said, adding, "we slowed down because we wanted to actually give the sector regulator full powers". The secretary further said the telecom industry wants certain guidelines to be put out for safeguarding consumers' interest under the Consumer Protection Act. "We are working on it, and very soon we will come out with the guidelines for prevention of pesky calls," Khare .

Airtel awards 'multi-year, multi-billion' extension deal to Ericsson

Second such deal announced by telco in past two-weeks, will aim to deploy 5G gear

Arpu vs users: Telecom tariff hikes in July trigger surprising trends

The hike's biggest impact has been the customer churn: India's mobile service market has lost 16.81 million connections since July

FBI warns against Chinese hackers, asks telecom firms to boost security

Federal authorities on Tuesday urged telecommunication companies to boost network security following a sprawling Chinese hacking campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. The guidance issued by the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is intended to help root out the hackers and prevent similar cyberespionage in the future. Officials who briefed reporters on the recommendations said the US still doesn't know the true scope of China's attack or the extent to which Chinese hackers still have access to US networks. In one sign of the global reach of China's hacking efforts, the government's warning was issued jointly with security agencies in New Zealand, Australia and Canada, members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which also includes the US and Britain. Dubbed Salt Typhoon by analysts, the wide-ranging cyberespionage campaign emerged earlier this year after hackers sought

Vodafone Idea becomes latest telco to launch AI-based spam detection filter

Vi is continuously working to develop solutions to curb spam, including voice calls, to ensure its users are further protected from unsolicited calls

Mandate on message traceability will not delay SMS delivery, says Trai

Telecom regulator TRAI on Thursday asserted that its mandate to telcos on message traceability as part of curbing spams would not lead to any delay in delivery of messages nor disrupt timely receipt of one-time passwords. Taking to X, TRAI dismissed as "factually incorrect" reports which suggested that OTP messages could get delayed from December 1. "This is factually incorrect. TRAI has mandated the Access Providers to ensure message traceability. It will not delay delivery of any message," Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) wrote on X. The clarification came after some media reports suggested that subscribers across telecom networks could face disruptions and delays in OTP-based transactions like banking services, and e-commerce, among others. TRAI has announced a number of initiatives to crackdown on spam calls and messages. To enhance message traceability, TRAI issued direction on August 20, 2024 mandating that the trail of all messages from senders/principal entities

Debt on major telcos hits Rs 4 trn in FY24; BSNL debt lowest at Rs 23.2k cr

The total debt on four major telecom operators in the country stood at Rs 4,09,905 crore in the financial year 2024, with state-owned BSNL recording the lowest debt among competitors at Rs 23,297 crore, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. According to data shared by Minister of State for Communications Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Vodafone Idea registered a debt of Rs 2.07 lakh crore, Bharti Airtel Rs 1.25 lakh crore and Jio Infocomm Rs 52,740 crore as of March 31, 2024. BSNL had a debt of Rs 40,400 crore in FY22, which was reduced to Rs 28,092 crore with the help of a revival package and financial support from the government. "In 2019, the first revival package amounting to around Rs 69 thousand crores was given that brought down the operating costs of BSNL/MTNL. In 2022, a revival package amounting to around Rs 1.64 Lakh crore was given. It focused on infusing fresh capital, restructuring debt, viability gap funding for rural telephony etc," Sekh

AI, GenAI next major game changers; will remain impactful: NTT executive

Artificial Intelligence and GenAI are poised to be a major "game changer" for society, a senior official of Japan's NTT has said, adding that the technology, which is attracting big investments and global attention, will prove to be "ubiquitous and impactful" in the coming times. Sean Lawrence, Vice President and head of the IOWN Development Office at NTT, said AI is being used far more widely than what is perceived by many. "We're not even going to know always that we're interacting with AI, but I think it is going to be really the next really big game changer in terms of technology for society," he said. Lawrence said AI will be powerful and ubiquitous. "... AI really is going to be very impactful for society. I think we're already using it a lot more than we realise for many people, but with the kind of maturation of AI, generative AI over the past few years, and you can see where it's going with the amount of investment and focus on it, it is going to become quite ubiquitous,"

Govt's nod for bank guarantee waiver will reduce telcos' burden: COAI

Industry body COAI on Tuesday said the Cabinet nod for bank guarantee waiver for past spectrum purchases is a "landmark decision" that would help reduce financial burden on telecom operators in the country. The association - whose members include Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio - further said the move will enhance cash flow, free up capital and enable capital investments in network expansion and technology upgrades. This, COAI said, will ensure a stronger and robust rollout of telecom networks in the future. "COAI welcomes the Union Cabinet's move and thanks the Government on approving the waiving of bank guarantee for telecom operators on spectrum purchased before 2022. This landmark decision will significantly help reduce the financial burden on the telecom operators in the country," SP Kochhar, Director General of COAI said in a statement. The Union Cabinet has waived the requirement to submit bank guarantees for spectrum purchased through auctions held before 2022

Over 25% subscribers report drop in pesky calls after Trai action: Survey

Around 27 per cent mobile subscribers have experienced reduction in pesky calls after telecom regulator Trai's stringent action against unregistered telemarketers, according to a survey by online platform LocalCircles. However, a majority of subscribers said there is no relief yet from pesky callers, instead there has been an increase in robo calls, the survey, which was released on Monday, said. According to the survey report, only 9 per cent mobile subscribers surveyed confirmed net reduction in pesky calls post Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) blacklisting of spammers. About 18 per cent subscribers confirmed decline in pesky calls but experienced increase in automated and robo calls. "For the first time in this survey series in last 5 years, LocalCircles is seeing 27 per cent mobile subscribers surveyed confirming that pesky calls have reduced, however, of them 18 per cent are reporting an increase in robo/automated pesky calls indicating that regulator must be vigil

Fraud detection system blocks 13.5 mn calls, saves Rs 2,500 cr: Scindia

The technical system deployed by the government is blocking 1.35 crore fraud calls daily and has helped save people's assets worth Rs 2,500 crore till date, Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia has said. The minister, in an interview with PTI, said most of the spam calls originate from servers outside the country, and the systems have been able to block the majority of such fraudulent calls. "In terms of the number of marketing calls you get in your phone, the number of fraud calls that come in, we have put in place a full system to be able to tackle that. Our DoT fraud detection network has saved close to about Rs 2,500 crore of people's assets today, as we speak, through Sanchar Sathi and Chakshu," Scindia said. The systems have led to the disconnection of close to about 2.9 lakh phones and blocked close to about 1.8 million headers that were used for sending out messages, he added. "Along with that, (there) was another vicarious method through which people woul