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Tag: DOT

  • TRAI issues directions to prevent TSPs from blocking spectrum

    NEW DELHI: Taking note of the huge wastage due to blocked spectrum causing inconvenience to consumers, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has directed that a Unified Access Service (UAS) licensee must surrender such spectrum immediately upon closure of wireless access services if he decides to close down its wireless access services which were being provided through the administratively assigned spectrum.

    In its directions issued today related to closure of access services, TRAI says a UAS licensee should be permitted to discontinue any of the services, permitted under the scope of licence without the need to surrender the licence.

    In case of closure of access services through any technology in the entire service area or a part of it, the TSP should be mandated to give a 60 days notice to the licensor and TRAI and 30 days notice to its effected subscribers, clearly stating the options available to the subscribers, including that of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) facility.

    The Authority has recommended various time-lines to be followed by Department of Telecom/WPC and the Licensee in the spectrum trading process. These timelines will bring greater clarity and certainty in the entire process of spectrum trading. If the entire spectrum in all bands is being sold by a licensee and will result in discontinuation of services, recommended timelines will remove uncertainties and facilitate the TSPs to given 60 days notice to DoT/TRAI and 30 days notice to its subscribers.

    If a subscriber wants to switch from one technology to other, within the same TSP, the same should not come under the definition MNP.  

    At the outset, TRAI has said that due to adoption of market based spectrum management, the continuance of access service is now no longer assured. Recently, there have been cases where due to reasons such as licensee failing to re-acquire its spectrum holding in a band on expiry of its license validity period; change of technology deployed by licensee; sale of entire spectrum holding through spectrum trading; roaming arrangement coming to an end; etc., there has been closure of access services being provided by the licensee. As a result subscribers had to face lot of inconveniences.

    The directions are aimed at ensuring that subscribers are not put to undue hardships due to closure of access services.

    The Authority had suo-motu issued a Consultation Paper on “Issues related to closure of Access Services” on 30 November 2016 seeking the comments of the stakeholders and an Open House Discussion was held on 28 April 2017 at New Delhi.

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  • Energy-efficient ideas: TRAI meet in Delhi on 5 July

    NEW DELHI: An open house discussion is being held in Delhi early next month following responses received by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to its Consultation Paper on Approach towards Sustainable Telecommunications. The OHD will be held on 5 July 2017 on the paper which had been issued on 17 January 2017.

    Later, TRAI had given extra time to stakeholders wanting to give suggestions to the efforts towards the effect of telecom on climate change and green house gas emissions, extending the date from 27 February to 14 March 2017 with counter-comments by 26 March. Following a request received from the Department of Telecom, TRAI had issued the Consultation Paper raising 14 questions.

    TRAI had issued a paper on similar issues in 2012 and the DoT had in fact given directions on that basis, but new issues have cropped up with emerging technologies.

    India has the second largest and fastest growing mobile telephone market in the world. Power and energy consumption for telecom network operations is by far the most important significant contributor of carbon emissions in the telecom industry.

    Hence, it is important for the telecom operators to shift to energy efficient technologies and alternate sources of energy. Moreover, Going Green has also become a business necessity for telecom operators with energy costs becoming as large as 25 per cent of total network operations costs. A typical communications company spends nearly one per cent of its revenues on energy which for large operators may amount to several million rupees.

    Also Read: Shift to energy-efficient tech; TRAI seeks ideas by 27 Feb

  • TRAI may invite ideas to boost b’cast & tele-products manufacturing

    MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will consider studying the issue of testing and quality of mobile phones and set-top boxes as part of a wider consultation to boost manufacturing of telecom and broadcasting products. The issue is important because telecom operators had flayed mobile handset quality for call drops and approached the Government saying the role of devices in issue of service quality had not been adequately considered.

    TRAI’s discussion paper pertaining to incentivising manufacturers of broadcasting and telecom equipment is in the works, sources told PTI. It may be released in the next month. Amongst other aspects, the paper may explore possible sops for operators who use indigenous products in their networks.

    Meanwhile, on the occasion of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, COAI conducted a high-level roundtable to highlight and discuss the role of technology in the advancement of 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The event focused on the success story of the Indian telecom revolution.

    Experts called for a closer collaboration between five ministries and Government departments of DoT, MeitY, MoC, MHRD, I&B and Skill Development. COAI emphasised the need for digital literacy and capacity building and creation of local language content for actualising the real potential of Digital India.

    Over Rs 9.2 lakh crore has been invested by Telecom Service Providers in building world class telecom Infrastructure. About 3.51 lakh BTSs were added, and subscribers have crossed the mark of one billion. Total internet subscribers in India are 261.31 million as per TRAI data.

    ACT Fibernet, a leading non-ISP broadband operator in India, issued a statement: ACT Fibernet actively employs analytics across its operations to build a better understanding of customer and business processes..

  • What are the rules for testing telecom networks

    MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, on Monday, started a consultation process to frame rules for the network testing before full-fledged commercial launch after witnessing the controversy related to Reliance Jio’s free trial run.

    “The DoT requested the Authority (TRAI) to provide its recommendations on testing of network before commercial launch of services including enrolment of customers for testing purposes before commercial launch, duration of testing period etc…,” TRAI consultation paper stated.

    Incumbent telecom operators had voiced concern that enrolment of subscribers and provision of service free of cost before commercial launch are leading to a non-level playing field. They also said the volume of voice traffic generated by such test users, due to free offers, is choking points of interconnect, and impairing the quality of service of other operators. The last date for seeking comments on the issue is May 29 and for counter comments 12 June.

    Telecom service providers (TSPs) are bound by roll-out obligations and other licence conditions, TRAI stated. The TSPs are required to install applicable systems for providing mobile services to the subscribers. It is important that these systems are tested before commencement of commercial services because a licensee has to ensure that its service meets the Quality of Service (QoS) standards prescribed by the Licensor or TRAI. As per the general practice, the Telecom Service Providers use test SIM Cards to check the quality of network, before the commercial launch of services.

    The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), through its letter dated 9 September 2016, communicated that at present, network testing is being carried out by licensees on the basis of erstwhile practices followed by DoT/BSNL and test SIM Cards are issued by such licensees to check the quality of network, before the commercial launch of services. However, the present licenses for various services issued by DoT do not mandate any time period for network testing before commercial launch of services by the licensees. Therefore, DoT requested TRAIto provide its recommendations
    on testing of network before commercial launch of services including enrolment of customers for testing purposes before commercial launch, duration of testing period etc. under the terms of clause 11(l)(a) of TRAI Act 1997 as amended.

    In view of the above, Consultation Paper on ‘Network testing before commercial launch of services’ has been released to discuss issues involved, possible solutions and framework to bring clarity on the matter. Written comments on the issues raised in the Consultation, Paper are invited from the stakeholders by 29th May 2017 and counter-comments by 12 June 2017.

    Comments and counter-comments may be sent, preferably in electronic form at advmn@trai.gov.in. For any clarification / information Sanjeev Banzal, Advisor (Networks, Spectrum & Licensing), TRAI, may be contacted at Telephone Number +91-11-23210481.

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    TRAI to begin groundwork on next spectrum auction, TSPs not too keen yet

  • TRAI to begin groundwork on next spectrum auction, TSPs not too keen yet

    NEW DELHI: Although the Telecom Regulatory Authority will work on the request received from the Department of Telecom for suggesting at a reserve price for 5G spectrum, it is unlikely that the auction would take place over the next six months.

    A TRAI source, confirming that the DoT was keen to auction 3400 to 3600 MHz which is used for 5G apart from the unsold spectrum from the last e-auction, said that telecom companies at present were not too keen to invest in fresh spectrum as they claimed to have incurred huge losses in the third quarter of 2016-17.

    The government is also keen to sell the 700 MHz band, which remained unsold in the last auction due to its high base price of Rs 114.75 billion per unit.

    TRAI has been asked to set the reserve price for airwaves in the 4G bands of 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz, and for spectrum in the 3400 MHz to 3600 MHz bands that are used for 5G services.

    The 5G airwaves are expected to be used for services like machine-to-machine communication, Internet of Things and even connected smart cities.

    Though consultations may be held soon with stakeholders, the Cellular Operators Association of India has said auctions should not be held before 2018.

    Around 2354.55 MHz of spectrum was put on sale in 2016, but the government managed to earn just around Rs 65,789 billion from 965 MHz, mainly in the 1800 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz bands.

  • TRAI chief pushes for b’band over cable TV, BharatNet for upping penetration

    NEW DELHI: Pointing out that initiatives such as broadband over cable and government’s OFC project BharatNet are important to increase broadband penetration, TRAI chairman RS Sharma has called for aggressively boosting India’s data connectivity profile as the country lags way behind many Asian countries on this score.

    According to Sharma, India’s data connectivity ranking was below Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Singapore, and way below the 46 per cent of average data connectivity level worldwide.

    “Indian telcos have delivered ubiquitous voice connectivity at affordable rates, but data connectivity remains a pain-point with the country ranked at 138 among the 175-odd countries, which is even below many African countries and island nations,” the Economic Times quoted Sharma from his keynote address at the ET Telecom India Mobile Congress last Friday.

    Highlighting the proactive nature of the regulator in giving fillip to broadband penetration, Sharma said the sector regulator has already recommended deployment of cable TV infrastructure for beefing up broadband, especially since 100 million homes already have cable connections. More recently, it has advocated freeing up new spectrum bands to ring in affordable Wi-Fi services in public places, the ET report stated, adding the chief regulator revealed the Department of Electronics & IT (DeitY) and the telecom department (DoT) were jointly initiating “a pilot program to offer affordable Wi-Fi, affordable Wi-Fi connectivity with free localized content“.

    Asserting that the national broadband project BharatNet would see significant acceleration in the coming months, the ET report quoted Sharma as saying the project could play a key role in boosting India’s overall data connectivity profile if implemented through the public-private partnership model as suggested by TRAI.

    Responding to a query on high spectrum costs in India, Sharma said the regulator had advocated a “pay-as-you-go model” for spectrum payouts to ease fiscal pains for telcos.

    Going forward, the sector regulator, according to the report, may also suggest that mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) be allowed to partner with multiple telcos, which would give consumers more choice for voice and data services and also allowing telcos more options to monetize unused airwaves.

  • Green telecom: TRAI again extends time for ideas

    NEW DELHI: In addition to an extension earlier, stakeholders wanting to give suggestions to the Telecom Regulatory Authority’s efforts towards the effect of telecom on climate change and green house gas emissions have been asked to send in their views by 3 April 2017. Stressing that no further extension would be given, TRAI has said the counter-comments can be sent by 17 April 2017.

    The Consultation Paper on Approach towards Sustainable Telecommunications in mid-January this year with a date of responses set for 13 February 2017 which was extended to 14 March. The paper issued following a request from the Department of Telecom raised 14 questions.

    TRAI had issued a paper on similar issues in 2012 and the DoT had in fact given directions on that basis, but new issues have cropped up with emerging technologies.

    India has the second largest and fastest growing mobile telephone market in the world. Power and energy consumption for telecom network operations is by far the most important significant contributor of carbon emissions in the telecom industry.

    Hence, it is important for the telecom operators to shift to energy efficient technologies and alternate sources of energy. Moreover, Going Green has also become a business necessity for telecom operators with energy costs becoming as large as 25% of total network operations costs. A typical communications company spends nearly 1% of its revenues on energy which for large operators may amount to several million rupees.

    Also read:

    Shift to energy-efficient tech; TRAI seeks ideas by 27 Feb

  • TRAI wi-fi ideas will lead to backhaul requirements, benefit TSPs: BIF

    MUMBAI: Broadband India Forum president T.V. Ramachandran has lauded the recommendations from the telecom regulator TRAI on ‘Proliferation of Broadband  through Public WIFI‘ announced on 9 March and called it as a huge step towards expediting the availability of affordable and accessible broadband everywhere and to achieve the vision of  Digital India. 

    He said and he hoped that the Department of Telecom will provide their early consent to these recommendations and pave the way for boosting broadband penetration in the country currently languishing at a lowly 18 per cent as compared to that of mobile which is at 93 per cent.

    Explaining the importance of this regulation, Ramachandran pointed out that based on Global Average of one hotspot for every 150 persons; India should have approx. 8 Million hotspots. However, the total number of hotspots as of 2016 based on TRAI’s own report was only 31, 500. He was confident with the implementation of these recommendations; the number of hotspots would accelerate to help bridge the huge deficit that exists.

    Ramachandran went on to further state  that this would lead to introduction of a number of new small time players in WIFI provisioning space who will be able to boost the broadband availability to the masses. Besides he also mentioned that due to this, there is likely to be huge explosion of backhaul requirements and TSPs are likely to hugely benefit out of this.

    Pointing out some of the salient and path breaking recommendations made by the Regulator, he mentioned a few viz.

    a) Clarification of the mis-understanding that arose in the UL-VNO regulations regarding the clause of exclusivity by asking the DOT to amend the UL-VNO guidelines to clarify that a UL-VNO can parent to multiple NSOs for offering of Internet services.

    b) Re-iteration of  its earlier position regarding freeing up new spectrum bands for Wifi access in the 5.8Ghz band and to expedite opening up of the  E & V bands for improving backhaul capacity ( E band) and for both backhaul and for high capacity access in case of V band

    c) Suggestions towards reduction in duties to make WiFi access devices cheaper so as to pave the way for affordable WiFi services in public places, and in turn, boost broadband penetration.

    d) Suggestion for creation of a new category of `public data office aggregators’ (PDOAs) who shall deliver Public WiFi services. It has also suggested that such aggregators work with small entrepreneurs who will provide the venues for `public data offices’ for such mass WiFi deployment.

    Under specific registration requirements (to be formulated by DOT). This move shall encourage Village Level Entrepreneurship & thus provide large employment opportunities in rural areas.

    e) The regulator has also permitted ease of authentication when roaming across several hotspots and also through a process of one-time authentication using eKYC, eCAF, MAC ID or through a secure Mobile app.

    Ramachandran said that BIF shared the vision of TRAI to decentralize the internet service sector and open up the sector for provision of broadband services through a plethora of smaller players through the simple process of ‘registration‘. This will result in significant increase in broadband penetration and the uptake of broadband enabled services  and applications throughout the country that will help catapult India into the top league of nations with high density of broadband users and higher average speed and capacity consumed per user.

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    TRAI wants reduction of import duty on Wi-fi equipment to help growth

  • TRAI wants reduction of import duty on Wi-fi equipment to help growth

    NEW DELHI: The import duty applicable upon Wi-Fi access point equipment should be revisited in coordination with the Commerce Ministry so that the cost of providing Wi-Fi service in the country leading to proliferation of broadband services can come down, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has said.

    It also said that the Department of Telecom should issue a clarification in respect of Clause (1)(xxii) of the UL VNO Guidelines, specifically clarifying that there is no exclusivity requirement upon UL VNO licensees for internet services, that is, a UL VNO can patent multiple NSO for providing internet service.

    In its Recommendations on “Proliferation of Broadband through Public Wi-Fi Networks”, TRAI said a new framework should be put in place for setting up of Public Data Offices (PDOs). Under this framework, PDOs in agreement with Public Data Office Aggregators (PDOAs) should be allowed to provide public Wi-Fi services. This will not only increase the number of public hotspots but also make internet service more affordable in the country.

    It said the existing requirement of authentication through OTP for each instance of access may be done away with. Authentication through eKYC, eCAF and other electronic modes should be allowed for the purposes of KYC obligations by PDOAs. This would enable PDOAs to obtain eKYC information and automatically authenticate the user device based on parameters such as the device’s MAC ID or through a mobile APP, which will store data required for authentication of the subscriber.

    In consultation with the security agencies, the DoT may consider authentication by MAC ID of the device or through a mobile APP which stores eKYC data of the subscriber and automatically authenticates the subscriber.

    PDOAs may be allowed to provide public Wi-Fi services without obtaining any specific license for the purpose. However, they would be subject to specific registration requirements (prescribed by the DoT) which will include obligations to ensure that e-KYC, authentication and record-keeping requirements (for customers, devices and PDOs enlisted with the PDOAs) are fulfilled by the PDOAs. This will encourage village level entrepreneurship and provide strong employment opportunities, especially in rural areas.

    PDOAs should be allowed to enter into agreements with third party application/service providers for the purposes of managing authentication and payment processes. Appropriate guidelines may be issued to ensure that customer consent is obtained, and other issues surrounding privacy and protection of sensitive personal information are addressed. This will encourage innovation in authentication and payment processes resulting in ease in access of the Wi-Fi services.

    TRAI said it was of the view that implementation of the recommendations will lead to introduction of a new set of small players in the Wi-Fi service provisioning space, who will be able to contribute in a big way in making broadband available to the masses.

    The Authority had suo-moto issued a Consultation Paper on “Proliferation of Broadband through Public Wi-Fi Networks” on 13 July 2016 to explore the regulatory and commercial constraints that potentially hinder the growth of scalable and ubiquitous Wi-Fi in the country. This included a review of any potential licensing restrictions, measures required to facilitate interoperability between Wi-Fi networks, possible de-licensing of additional bandwidths for the purposes of expediting the deployment of public Wi-Fi, and several demand-side issues such as roaming capabilities, authentication and payment processes, that potentially hinder the uptake of public Wi-Fi.

    While the comments and counter-comments received from the stakeholders were placed on the TRAI website, a workshop on public Wi-Fi networks was conducted in collaboration with the International Institute of Information Technology (lilT), Bangalore, on 28 September 2016.

    The purpose of this workshop was to explore various models of public Wi-Fi that could address the resource gap in terms of delivering public Wi-Fi in remote areas. Based on the discussions held at the workshop, the Authority released a Consultation Note on “Model for Nationwide Interoperable and Scalable Public Wi-Fi Networks” on 15 November 2016. The Consultation Note attempted to explore the roles of different stakeholders in the Public Wi-Fi network value chain and build an ecosystem for promoting scalable and sustainable partnerships for large scale nation wide deployment; and explore viable models that could be adopted towards rapidly deploying affordable and interoperable public Wi­ Fi networks. The comments received from the stakeholders were placed on the TRAI’s website. An Open House Discussion (OHD) with stakeholders was also organized on 9 January 2017 at New Delhi.

    The detailed recommendations are on trai.gov.in

  • Don’t levy spectrum usage charges as percentage of AGR: TRAI

    NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The minimum presumptive Adjusted Gross Revenue should not be made applicable to ISP licensees, and the spectrum usage charges should not be levied as percentage of AGR and existing formula-based mechanism of charging SUC should continue as also the existing system of payment of SUC charges on an annual basis by ISP licensees.

    Following a request from the DoT, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had issued a consultation paper on “Spectrum Usage Charges (SUC) and Presumptive-Adjusted Gross Revenue for Internet Service Providers and Commercial Very Small Aperture Terminal Service Providers” on 19 August 2016.

    Apart from written comments and counter comments, an Open House Discussion was held on 19 January 2017 with the stakeholders. TRAI’s recommendations were based on the analysis of the comments received from the stakeholders and its own analysis.

    The interest for delayed payment of SUC by ISP licensees, TRAI recommends, should be two per cent above the SBI PLR rate existing on the beginning of the relevant financial year, and there should be no requirement of FBG for ISP licensee in respect of formula-based SUC payable.

    The minimum presumptive AGR should not be made applicable to commercial VSAT license and the SUC should not be more than one per cent of AGR irrespective of the data rate.

    The Department of Telecom should put in place a comprehensive, integrated on-line system that acts as a single window clearance for the allocation/ clearances/issuance for approval/ clearance / issue of No Objection Certificates and other permissions to the licensees of spectrum,

    In its Recommendations on “Spectrum Usage Charges and Presumptive Adjusted Gross Revenue for Internet Service Providers and Commercial Very Small Aperture Terminal Service Providers”, TRAI has said DoT should make arrangement to accept online payment of financial levies / dues such as Licence Fee, Spectrum Usage Charges and other fees that are paid by the licensees for obtaining licence/ approval/ clearance / issue of No Objection Certificates from DoT.

    The regulator has said that the existing system of spectrum assignment on location/link-by-link basis on administrative basis to ISP licensees in the specified bands (viz 2.7 GHz, 3.3 GHz, 5.7 GHz and 10.5 GHz) should continue.

    DoT may take up with the Department of Space to evolve a system where the VSAT licensees are not made to run from pillar to post to get their services activated.

    The clock should start from the day the bandwidth is allotted by DoS and DoT should allot frequency within three months of allotment of spectrum by DoS. The two departments may also explore the possibility of implementing an on-line application for automating the whole process to bring in transparency.

    DoT had sought TRAI’s recommendations in terms of clause 11(1) of TRAI Act 1997 (as amended), on :

    (A) ISP  license

    (i)    Rates for  SUC;
    (ii)   Percentage of AGR including minimum AGR;
    (iii)  Allied issues like schedule of payment, charging of interest, penalty and Financial Bank Guarantee (FBG)

    (B) Commercial VSAT license

    (i)  Floor level (minimum) AGR, based       on the amount of spectrum held by commercial VSAT operators.