Telecom Companies

Telcom firms being mindful of service quality in 5G rollout, says COAI

Industry body COAI has asserted that operators are mindful of adhering to service quality as they roll out 5G, but added that full benefits of seamless urban-rural connectivity of fifth-generation services will be gained once pan-India availability of these networks is achieved. The speed of 5G rollout in India "is the fastest in the world", SP Kochhar, Director General of Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) said. "When the rollout is taking place in a phased manner, that is, in urban areas first, followed by rural, and not in a heterogeneous manner - the overall benefits of 5G will take some time to arrive," Kochhar told PTI. 5G services, in locations rolled out already, are meeting the scientific parameters of ultra high-speed network. "Wherever 5G is being rolled out, telecom operators are being very careful that they adhere to quality, as it is in their interest to do so, and the competition is so stiff that they don't want to lose out the business. So they will com

COAI bats for industrial electricity tariff rates for telecom infra

Telcos' body COAI has made a strong plea that the telecom sector be charged industrial tariffs for electricity and not commercial rates, and that power connections be expeditiously provided to telecom infrastructure facilities. It said doing so was important given the essential nature of services and socio-economic benefits that accrue across multiple sectors from faster 5G deployments. COAI - whose members include telecom operators like Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea - has also batted for the sector to be provided uninterrupted 24x7 power supply. "Telecom is an infrastructure industry, but we are still being charged at commercial rates for power. So we don't get the benefits," SP Kochhar, Director General of Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) told PTI. COAI has demanded that telecom infrastructure be charged at industrial and not commercial rates for electricity. Today, most states provide electricity on commercial tariff rate to telecom industry, placi

Trai directs telecom companies to report network outages with reasons

The telecom regulator Trai on Tuesday directed telecom operators to start reporting about network outages that affect all consumers in a district. The direction has come into force with immediate effect. "..the access service providers have been directed to report...all incidents of major network outages affecting the telecom services to the entire consumers of a district continuously for a period of more than four hours, within 24 hours of their occurrence," the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in a statement. The development follows after the regulator learnt about major network outages in the country of prolonged duration especially in the border and hilly areas, which adversely affect the quality of services being provided. Trai has directed telecom operators to report the root cause of major network outages and corrective actions taken by the telecom operators within 72 hours of restoration of the service. The regulator said that the information will be colle

Trai asks telcos to take action on pesky telemarketing calls, messages

Trai on Monday asked telcos to take immediate action to curb pesky calls and messages by getting banks and FIs to clean up unused templates, as the regulator initiated a slew of steps to crackdown on the issue of unsolicited commercial communications (UCC) that, at times, leads to instances of frauds and scams. Telecom Regulatory Authority of Indian (Trai) held a review meeting with telecom operators like Bharti Airtel, Jio, and Vodafone Idea (VIL) on issue of UCC detect system. During the meeting, Vodafone Idea made a presentation on a AI/ML (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning) system that can analyse and detect patterns when it comes to fraudulent messages being sent from mobile numbers by scammers. Trai said permission will now be given to VIL for a pilot, and based on its success Trai will come out with principles/regulations for such solutions in the industry. The deadline for review of implementation of UCC detect system using AI/ML is May 1. "Today we have made it ver

Centre freeing up more 5G spectrum, auction likely next year: Report

5G spectrum: Centre is looking for ways to shift some broadcasting and satellite players from 3.8 GHz to higher frequency

Trai to meet telcos on Feb 17 to discuss calls drops, service issues, 5G

Telecom regulator TRAI has called a meeting with telcos on February 17 to discuss measures and action plan for improving service quality, review of norms, benchmarks for 5G services, and unsolicited commercial communications. The meeting assumes significance as improvement in telecom service quality is bound to cheer mobile customers, irked by call drops and patchy networks. It also comes at a time when ultra high speed 5G services are rolling out across the country. So far, as many as 200 cities in India have seen launch of 5G services, the next generation of technology that promises turbocharged speeds (about 10 times faster than 4G) and low latency connectivity. Issues around service quality have been in the spotlight over the last few months. The Telecom Department back in December met operators to discuss rising instances of call drops and service quality-related issues, as it deliberated on policy measures that can be considered for improving call quality. In a statement on .

Vi targeting tier 3 cities to protect rural customer base: Report

Vi is losing customers every month and it has been unable to raise funds

Trai recommends 10-year renewal for multi-system operators' registrations

The authority recommends that all such registrations should be deemed to expire after eight months from the date of implementation

Bharti Airtel sees limited scope of 5G monetisation currently: Executive

Fewer people upgrading to 5G handsets, says top executive

Airtel plans to invest additional Rs 27-28,000 crore with focus on 5G

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has plans to invest Rs 27,000-28,000 crore in telecom network with a focus on 5G rollout, a company official said on Wednesday. While the company is planning to increase capital expenditure by 10-15 per cent, it has no plans to charge a premium rate for 5G services as it has not worked in several countries that tried to do so. "Airtel capex will be in line with that spent in the last three years. It may go up and down because of the faster rollout of 5G-- around Rs 27,000-28,000 crore. We may see an upsurge in one year and gradually moderate around the same level," the official, who did not wish to be named, told PTI. The company earlier had an annual average capex in the range of Rs 24,000-25,000 crore. The official said that capex is being largely spent on radios (mobile antennas), fibre, broadband, enterprise technology data centres etc. According to data shared by the telecom ministry, Bharti Airtel has rolled out 3,293 base stations for 5G till .

Need to quickly end call drops, improve quality: Govt tells telcos

Poor quality unacceptable at a time when India is adopting 5G technology: Companies are told

Top headlines: Telcos get green signal, states start mock drills, and more

Business Standard brings you the top headlines at this hour

Telecom firms get green signal for towers, services on railway land

The move is likely to give 5G network a boost

Jio installed 5x more 5G radios than Airtel as of Nov: Telecom dept in RS

Airtel cites difference in tech after govt presents data in Rajya Sabha

Certain people used BSNL as 'cash cow' during UPA rule: Ashwini Vaishnaw

The BSNL suffered badly due to certain political parties and it was used as a "cash cow" by some people who are still members of Parliament, Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved a huge project worth Rs 1.64 lakh crore for the revival of BSNL, and this will transform the telecom PSU completely, the minister said in Lok Sabha. "The BSNL went through a very bad phase. Primarily due to certain political parties during UPA time. Lots of funds were diverted away," he said, amid protests by some opposition members. Time has changed, the minister said, and the BSNL will soon launch 4G and 5G networks designed, developed and made in the country as per Modi's 'Make in India' initiative. "Those times have gone when certain (former) ministers, people sitting on the other side of the aisle, used the BSNL as a cash cow," he said, pointing towards the opposition benches. Vaishnaw, however, did not name any person or political party

Tighter quality of service norms for telecom service providers on the cards

It intends to improve telecom services at a time when the country is quickly adopting 5G technology

Vodafone Idea's fundraising put on hold as govt delays equity call

The development spells further trouble for the company, which has an overall debt pile of Rs 2.2 trillion including hefty dues to the government

Need separate pan-India licence for Satellite Earth Station Gateways: TRAI

A satellite gateway (also referred to as a teleport or hub) is a ground station that transmits data to and from the satellite to the local area network

Have OTT players pay telecom firms usage charges, COAI writes to DoT

Telcos point out that based on global estimates 56% of telco bandwidth is used by OTT communication platforms and in India it is even higher due to the proliferation of users which are over 400 mn

5G signals won't interfere with flight operations, telcos reiterate

Senior industry executives say no recent discussions with government on issue of 5G signals interfering with aviation instruments, companies remain open to talks