ITV

Tag: COAI

  • Cellular Association welcomes central advisory to state governments on mobile towers

    Cellular Association welcomes central advisory to state governments on mobile towers

    NEW DELHI: The Cellular Operators Association of India has welcomed the advisory sent by the Department of Telecommunications to state governments on mobile tower guidelines, saying the norms clearly segregate emission aspects from structural requirements.

    The DoT has asked the states to refrain from sealing mobile towers or disconnecting power supply to them without the permission of its unit, TERM cell, on account of radiation related issues.

    COAI director general Rajan S Mathews said in a statement: “We are working closely with the DoT to ensure that all safety norms are made universal and fears of the public about the telecom towers are removed.”

    He said the positive aspect of the guidelines is a clear distinction and segregation of emission (EMF) aspects from structural requirements. “The new guidelines have clearly stated that EMF aspects, compliance of RF exposure field emissions, issues related to SACFA, licence etc are to be handled solely by the DoT’s TERM cells,” it added.

    COAI said the guidelines encourage a nominal one-time fee, single window clearance, and electricity connection on priority for mobile towers.

    “These are welcome steps for the industry which has been contending with a complex system and procedural delays which are hindrance towards the much required development of telecom infrastructure in the country,” it added.

    India has already implemented stricter radiation norms than are followed by other countries, DoT officials said.

    Industry representatives maintain that due to the lack of awareness on radiation, people object to the installation or working of mobile towers.

    Around 5,000 towers in Delhi and Mumbai were termed illegal by local authorities and shut down.

  • Trai relaxes rules for telemarketing messages

    Trai relaxes rules for telemarketing messages

    NEW DELHI: Registered telemarketers can send more than 100 text messages a day on each SIM, however, they will have to pay an additional five paisa per message to the network operators.

    The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has also lifted the cap on banks and insurers providing information to customers, and companies communicating with employees about the delivery of goods and services.

    “The limit of 100 SMS per day per SIM shall not apply to a telemarketer or entity sending transactional messages,” Trai said in ‘The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference (Seventh Amendment) Regulations, 2011’. 

    A charge on telemarketers would increase network operators’ revenues from 0.5-1 paisa per SMS to 5.5-6 paisa, according to the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI). But the charge would not affect contracts agreed previously between operators and agencies sending commercial messages.

    Trai had issued “The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010” on 1 December 2010. All the provisions of these regulations came into force from 27 September 2011. 

    In these regulations, the Authority specified a number of deterrent measures to stop commercial SMSs to telecom consumers who have registered themselves with the National Customer Preference Register. But the charge of 0.5 paisa has been prescribed as a promotional charge to deter the sending of SMSs.

    The Authority has also allowed transactional message sending entities to send transactional messages without registering as telemarketer with Trai. The Authority has also mandated that these entities will have to enter into a standard agreement with their access providers for obtaining any telecom resources and has exempted the transactional message sending entities from the limit of 100 SMS per day per SIM.