Telecom Industry

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

Satellite spectrum: Jio, Airtel bat for restricted validity of 3-5 years

Elon Musk's Starlink and Amazon's Kuiper have proposed the 'shared spectrum' be given to them for 20 years

RIL lobbies for India satellite spectrum auction in clash with Starlink

Billionaire Ambani runs India's biggest telecom company, Reliance Jio. Analysts say a spectrum auction, requiring much more investment, would likely deter foreign rivals

Starlink disputes predatory pricing allegations at Trai open house

Starlink on Friday asserted that it maintains absolute transparency on pricing as Elon Musk-backed satellite internet service provider vehemently dismissed arguments aired by certain players about "predatory pricing of next-generation systems" in a high-voltage open house discussion conducted by TRAI. With battlelines between terrestrial players and satellite aspirants clearly drawn, TRAI's marathon open house discussion that stretched for several hours saw telcos Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel banding together and speaking in unison about the need for level-playing-field as India works out the norms for satcom spectrum. Jio, which has made a case for the auction of satellite spectrum, on Friday said it is "not afraid of competition" but that 'same services same rules' must apply. "We are working in a hyper-competitive market. We are not afraid of competition. It is the other way around. Actually, the entities who are wanting to be in this space via satellite, in the telecommunicati

Telecom issue: NCLAT dismisses petitions, says IBC to prevail over Trai Act

Insolvency tribunal NCLAT has said that the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC) would prevail over the provision of the Telecom Service Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act, as it dismissed two petitions filed by the sectoral regulator in the RCom matter. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) dismissed the plea by the telecom regulator TRAI against the classification of the balances of the customers of RCom as operational debt by the resolution professional in the insolvency proceedings of the defunct service provider. NCLAT also dismissed the second petition filed by TRAI, where it sought direction to the resolution professional of RCom for payments of statutory dues amounting to Rs 85.10 lakh. "The submission of the appellant (TRAI) that Act being a special law, would prevail over the provisions of IBC cannot be accepted." "The Supreme Court has already held that Section 238 of the IBC has overriding effect over any other law. Hence, IBC shall prevail over the ..

Level playing field: Jio sends second legal opinion to Trai on satcom

Former SC judge says Trai should have sought stakeholder comments on satellite spectrum allocation

To be a leader in telecom, you need to lead in AI: Chandru Sargor

He tells that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is solving real life challenges in telecom networks

Sunil Mittal's Bharti Telecom to raise Rs 8,500 crore via bond market

The borrowing is coming days after India's second-largest wireless carrier Bharti Airtel Ltd., in which Bharti Telecom is the largest shareholder

Why telcos fear trouble if Starlink gets spectrum at administrative prices

GSMA research reveals that only 1 per cent of India's population is unconnected or has no coverage. Domestic telcos say that is too small a market to make a business case