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Tag: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

  • TRAI releases consultation paper on ‘Regulation on Rating Framework for Digital Connectivity in Buildings or Area’

    TRAI releases consultation paper on ‘Regulation on Rating Framework for Digital Connectivity in Buildings or Area’

    Mumbai: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released consultation paper on ‘Regulation on Rating Framework for Digital Connectivity in Buildings or Area’ on 27 September 2023, inviting comments from stakeholders, with last date of submission of comments as 10 November 2023 and counter comments by 24 November 2023.

    Keeping in vIew of the requests received from the stakeholder/industry association for extension of time for submission of comments, it has been decided to extend the last date of submission of comments by four weeks i.e. up to 8 December 2023 and counter comments by 22 December 2023. 

  • TRAI further extends paper on ‘Digital Inclusion in the Era of Emerging Technologies’

    TRAI further extends paper on ‘Digital Inclusion in the Era of Emerging Technologies’

    Mumbai: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released a consultation paper on “Digital Inclusion in the Era of Emerging Technologies” on 14 September 2023. As per the extended timelines, the stakeholders were required to submit their comments by 16 November 2023 and counter comments up to 1 December 2023.

    TRAI received further requests from stakeholders for extension of time for submission of comments on the above-mentioned consultation paper due to festival holidays and ongoing multiple consultations. Therefore, it has been decided to extend the last date for submission of comments up to 15 December 2023 and counter comments up to 29 December 2023. 

  • TRAI extends ‘Review of Regulatory Framework for Broadcasting and Cable services’

    TRAI extends ‘Review of Regulatory Framework for Broadcasting and Cable services’

    Mumbai: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had released a consultation paper on “Review of Regulatory Framework for Broadcasting and Cable services” on 8 August 2023. The last date of receiving comments from the stakeholders on the issues raised in the consultation paper was initially fixed as 5 September 2023 and counter-comments as 19 September 2023.

    Due to requests received from stakeholders for extension of time for submission of comments from time to time, the last dates for receiving written comments and counter comments were extended up to 10 October 2023 and 25 October 2023 respectively.

    On requests received from the stakeholders for extension of time for submission of counter-comments on the above-mentioned consultation paper, it has been decided to further extend the last date for submission of counter-comments up to 1 November 2023. It is also reported that no request for any further extension of time for submission of counter-comments shall be entertained.

  • TRAI extends the date of ‘Encouraging R&D in Telecom, Broadcasting, and IT (ICT) Sectors’

    TRAI extends the date of ‘Encouraging R&D in Telecom, Broadcasting, and IT (ICT) Sectors’

    Mumbai: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had released a consultation paper on ‘Encouraging R&D in Telecom, Broadcasting, and IT (!CT) Sectors’ on 22 September 2023. The last date of receiving comments from the stakeholders was fixed on 23 October 2023 and counter comments by 6 November 2023.

    Considering the fact that the Authority has issued a number of consultation papers on different subjects in the recent past and enough time is made available to the stakeholders for submitting comments & counter comments, the Authority has decided to extend the last date for submission of comments up to 23 November 2023 and counter comments by 7 December 2023.

  • TRAI extends consultation paper on ‘Digital Inclusion in the Era of Emerging Technologies’

    TRAI extends consultation paper on ‘Digital Inclusion in the Era of Emerging Technologies’

    Mumbai: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released a consultation paper on “Digital Inclusion in the Era of Emerging Technologies” on 14 September 2023. The stakeholders were required to submit their comments by 16 October 2023 and counter comments by 31 October 2023.

    On request of stakeholders for extension of time for submission of comments on the above-mentioned consultation paper, it has been decided to extend the last date for submission of comments upto 16 November 2023 and counter comments upto 1 December 2023.  

  • TRAI extends date to receive comments on ‘National Broadcasting Policy’

    TRAI extends date to receive comments on ‘National Broadcasting Policy’

    Mumbai: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had released a pre-consultation paper on Inputs for Formulation of “National Broadcasting Policy” on 21 September 2023.The last date of receiving comments from the stakeholders on the issues raised in the pre-consultation paper was fixed as 10 October 2023.

    Keeping in view the requests received from the stakeholders for extension of time for submission of comments on the above-mentioned pre-consultation paper, it has been decided to extend the last date for submission of comments up to 31 October 2023.

     

  • TRAI extends consultation paper on Broadcasting and Cable services

    TRAI extends consultation paper on Broadcasting and Cable services

    Mumbai: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released a consultation paper on “Review of Regulatory Framework for Broadcasting and Cable services” on 8 August 2023. The last date of receiving comments from the stakeholders on the issues raised in the consultation paper was initially fixed as 5 September 2023 and counter-comments as 19 September 2023.

    On requests received from the stakeholders for extension of time for submission of comments on the above-mentioned consultation paper, it has been decided to further extend the last date for submission of comments and counter-comments up to 10 October 2023 and 25 October 2023 respectively.

     

  • TRAI extends consultation paper on ‘Review of Regulatory Framework for Broadcasting and Cable services’

    TRAI extends consultation paper on ‘Review of Regulatory Framework for Broadcasting and Cable services’

    Mumbai: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released a consultation paper on “Review of Regulatory Framework for Broadcasting and Cable services” on 8 August 2023. The last date of receiving comments from the stakeholders on the issues raised in the consultation paper was fixed as 5 September 2023 and counter-comments as 19 September 2023.

    Keeping in view the requests received from the stakeholders for extension of time for submission of comments on the above-mentioned consultation paper, it has been decided to extend the last date for submission of comments and counter-comments up to 19 September 2023 and 3 October 2023 respectively. 

  • Telcos’ gross revenue slips 0.01% to Rs 76,408 cr in Apr-Jun’2022: Trai

    Telcos’ gross revenue slips 0.01% to Rs 76,408 cr in Apr-Jun’2022: Trai

    Mumbai: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has released the latest edition, for the quarter ending 20 June 2022, of its report “Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator” on Wednesday.

    The report provides a broad view of telecom services, including key parameters and growth trends, as well as cable TV, DTH, and radio broadcasting services in India from April 1 to June 30.

    According to the report, the number of telephone subscribers has increased from 1,166.93 million at the end of March 22 to 1,172.96 million at the end of June 22, registering a growth rate of 0.52 per cent over the previous quarter. This reflects a year-on-year (YoY) decline rate of 2.46 per cent over the same quarter of the last year. Overall teledensity in India increased from 84.88 per cent on March 22 to 85.13 per cent on June 22.

    Trends in Telephone subscribers and Tele-density in India

    Telephone subscribers in urban areas increased to 649.09 million at the end of Jun-22, in comparison to 647.11 million at the end of Mar-22. During the same time period, however, urban tele-density fell from 134.94 per cent to 134.72 per cent.

    Rural telephone subscribers increased from 519.82 million at the end of Mar-22 to 523.27 million at the end of Jun-22 and rural tele-density also increased from 58.07 per cent to 58.46 per cent during the same period.

    Out of the total subscriptions, the share of rural subscriptions increased from 44.55 per cent at the end of Mar-22 to 44.66 per cent at the end of Jun-22.

    Composition of Telephone Subscribers

    With a net increase of 5.30 million subscribers during the quarter, the total wireless subscriber base increased from 1,142.09 million at the end of Mar-22 to 1,147.39 million at the end of Jun-22, registering a growth rate of 0.46 per cent over the previous quarter. On Y-O-Y basis, wireless subscriptions decreased at the rate of 2.83 per cent during the year. 

    Wireless tele-density increased from 83.07 per cent at the end of Mar-22 to 83.27 per cent at the end of Jun-22 with quarterly growth rate of 0.24 per cent.

    Wireline subscribers increased from 24.84 million at the end of Mar-22 to 25.57 million at the end of Jun-22, representing a quarterly growth rate of 2.92 per cent, and wireline subscriptions increased by 17.62 per cent year-on-year at the end of quarter ended Jun-22.

    Wireline tele-density increased from 1.81 per cent at the end of Mar-22 to 1.86 per cent at the end of Jun-22 with quarterly growth rate of 2.69 per cent.

    Total number of internet subscribers increased from 824.89 million at the end of Mar-22 to 836.86 million at the end of Jun-22, registering a quarterly growth rate of 1.45 per cent. Out of 836.86 million internet subscribers, the number of wired subscribers is 28.73 million, and the number of wireless subscribers is 808.13 million.

    Composition of internet subscription

    There are 800,94 million broadband internet subscribers and 35.92 million narrowband internet subscribers in the internet subscriber base.

    The broadband internet subscriber base increased by 1.60 per cent from 788.30 million at the end of Mar-22 to 800.94 million at the end of Jun-22. The narrowband internet subscriber base declined by 1.84 per cent from 36.59 million at the end of Mar-22 to 35.92 million at the end of Jun-22.  

    Monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) for wireless service increased by 5.02 per cent, from Rs 127.17 in Mar-22 to Rs 133.55 in Jun-22. On a YoY basis, monthly ARPU for wireless service increased by 27.61 per cent in this quarter.

    Prepaid ARPU per month increased from Rs 121.91 in Mar-22 to Rs 128.61 in Jun-22, however, postpaid ARPU per month decreased from Rs 200.56 in Mar-22 to Rs 197.55 in Jun-22.

    On an all-India average, the overall MOU per subscriber per month decreased by 4.38 per cent from 955 in March 2022 to 914 in June 2022.

    Prepaid MOU per subscriber per month fell from 972 in March to 936 in June. Postpaid MOU per subscriber per month fell from 721 in March to 621 in June.

    The telecom service sector’s gross revenue (GR) and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) for the quarter ended June 22 were Rs 76,408 crore and Rs 60,530 crore, respectively. GR decreased by 0.01 per cent and AGR increased by 2.79 per cent in Jun-22, as compared to the previous quarter.

    The YoY growth in GR and AGR in Jun-22 over the same quarter last year has been 17.91 per cent and 17.91 per cent, respectively.

    Pass-through charges decreased from Rs 13,568 crore in Mar-22 to Rs 13,415 crore in Jun-22, with a quarterly decline rate of 1.12 per cent. Pass-through charges for the quarter ended June 22 have decreased by 0.38 per cent YoY.

    The licence fee increased from Rs 4,712 crore to Rs 4,844 crore for the QE Mar-22 to QE Jun-22. The quarterly and the YoY growth rates of the licence fee are 2.79 per cent and 18.05 per cent, respectively, in this quarter.

    Service-wise composition of Adjusted Gross Revenue

    Access services contributed 80.95 per cent of the total adjusted gross revenue of telecom services. In access services, gross revenue (GR), adjusted gross revenue (AGR), license fee, spectrum usage charges (SUC) and pass through charges increased by 1.67 per cent, 5.55 per cent, 5.53 per cent, 3.82 per cent and -3.41 per cent, respectively in QE Jun-22.

    The performance of cellular mobile service providers in terms of quality of service performance in all the parameters remains the same, i.e., neither performance has improved nor deteriorated in this quarter as compared to the previous quarter.

    A total of approximately 892 private satellite TV channels have been permitted by the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) for uplinking only/downlinking only/both uplinking & downlinking.  

    As per the reporting done by broadcasters in pursuance of the tariff order dated 3 March 2017 as amended, out of 879 permitted satellite TV channels which are available for downlinking in India, there are 347 satellite pay TV channels as on 30 June 2022. Out of 347 pay channels, 249 are SD satellite pay TV channels and 98 are HD satellite pay TV channels.

    Since the introduction of the DTH sector in 2003, Indian DTH (direct-to-home) services have displayed phenomenal growth. There were four pay DTH service providers in the country during the quarter that ended in June 2022.

    As of June 30, 2022, Pay DTH had approximately 67.04 million active subscribers. This is in addition to the DD Free Dish (free DTH services from Doordarshan) subscribers.

  • Trai issues amendments to the regulatory framework for broadcasting and cable services

    Trai issues amendments to the regulatory framework for broadcasting and cable services

    Mumbai: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Tuesday issued the telecommunication services tariff order, 2022 and the telecommunication services interconnection regulations, 2022.

    In consonance with the complete digitisation of the cable TV sector, Trai on 3 March 2017 notified the new regulatory framework for broadcasting and cable services. After passing legal scrutiny in Madras High Court and Supreme Court, the new framework came into effect from 29 December 2018.

    As the new regulatory framework changed quite a few business rules, many positives emerged. However, upon implementation of the new regulatory framework 2017, Trai noticed some inadequacies impacting the consumers. To address certain issues that arose after implementation of the new regulatory framework, after a due consultation process with stakeholders, Trai on 1 January 2020 notified the new regulatory framework 2020.

    Some stakeholders challenged provisions of tariff amendment order 2020, interconnection amendment regulations 2020 and QoS amendment regulations 2020 in various High Courts including in the High Court of Bombay and Kerala. The court upheld the validity of the new regulatory framework 2020 except for a few provisions.

    The provisions related to network capacity fee (NCF), multi-TV homes and long-term subscriptions of new regulatory framework 2020, have already been implemented and due benefits are being passed on to the consumer at large. Every consumer now can get 228 TV channels instead of 100 channels earlier, in a maximum NCF of Rs 130. It has enabled consumers to reduce their NCF for availing a similar number of channels as per 2017 framework, by an estimated cost varying Rs 40 to 50. Additionally, the amended NCF for multi-TV homes has enabled further savings to the consumers to the tune of 60 per cent on second (and more) television sets.

    However, as per RIOs filed by the broadcasters in November 2021, the new tariffs reflected a common trend i.e., the prices of their most popular channels including sports channels were enhanced beyond Rs 19 per month. Complying to the extent provisions, as regards the inclusion of pay channels in a bouquet, all such channels that are priced beyond Rs 12 per month are kept out of the bouquet and are offered only on a-la-carte basis. The revised RIOs as filed indicate a wide-scale changes in composition of almost all the bouquets being offered.

    Immediately after new tariffs were announced, Trai received representations from distribution platform operators (DPOs), associations of local cable operators (LCOs) and consumer organisations. DPOs highlighted difficulties likely to be faced by them in implementing new rates in the system and migrating the consumers to the new tariff regime through the informed exercise of options impacting almost all bouquets, especially due to upward revision in the rates of pay channels and bouquets declared by broadcasters. Therefore, Trai engaged with all the different associations and consumer groups including representatives of LCOs.

    To deliberate on the various issues related to implementation of new regulatory framework 2020 and suggest a way forward, a committee consisting of members from Indian Broadcasting & Digital Foundation (IBDF), All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) & DTH Association was constituted under the aegis of Trai.

    The purpose of the committee was to facilitate discussions among various stakeholders to come out on a common agreed path for smooth implementation of Tariff Amendment Order 2020. Stakeholders were advised to come out with an implementation plan with minimum disruptions and hassles to the consumers while implementing the new regulatory framework 2020.

    The committee listed several issues related to the new regulatory framework 2020 for consideration. The stakeholders, however, requested Trai to immediately address critical issues which could create impediments for smooth implementation of tariff amendment order 2020.

    In order to address the issues as identified by the stakeholders’ committee; Trai issued a consultation paper for seeking stakeholders’ comments on points/issues which are pending for full implementation of the new regulatory framework 2020. The consultation paper sought comments and suggestions from various stakeholders, on issues related to discount given in the formation of the bouquet, ceiling price of channels for inclusion in bouquet, and discount offered by broadcasters to DPOs in addition to distribution fee.

    The authority analysed the comments of the stakeholders and to protect the interests of consumers has notified the amendments to tariff order 2017 and interconnection regulations 2017. The main features of the amendments are as follows:

    a.    Continuance of forbearance on MRP of TV channels

    b.    Only those channels which are having MRP of Rs 19 or less will be permitted to be part of a bouquet.

    c.    A broadcaster can offer a maximum discount of 45 per cent while pricing its bouquet of pay channels over the sum of MRPs of all of the pay channels in that bouquet.

     d.   Discount offered as an incentive by a broadcaster on the maximum retail price of a pay channel shall be based on combined subscription of that channel both in a-la-carte as well as in bouquets.

    All the broadcasters shall report to the authority, any change in name, nature, language, MRP per month of channels, and composition and MRP of bouquets of channels, by 16 December 2022, and simultaneously publish such information on their websites. The broadcasters who have already submitted their RIOs in compliance with the new regulatory framework 2020 may also revise their RIOs by 16 December 2022.

    All the distributors of television channels shall report to the authority, DRP of pay channels and bouquets of pay channels, and composition of bouquets of pay and FTA channels, by 1 January 2023, and simultaneously publish such information on their websites. DPOs who have already submitted their RIOs in compliance with the new regulatory framework 2020 may also revise their RIOs by 1 January 2023.

    All the distributors of television channels shall ensure that services to the subscribers, with effect from 1 February 2023, are provided as per the bouquets or channels opted by them.

    Trai in the present amendments, addressed only those critical issues which were suggested by the stakeholders’ committee to avoid inconvenience to consumers while implementing the tariff amendment order 2020. The stakeholders’ committee also listed other issues for subsequent consideration by Trai. In addition, the authority held multiple meetings with representatives of LCOs including an online meeting which was attended by more than 200 LCOs from across the country. Several issues were put forward during these meetings. Trai has noted the suggestions and may take further suitable measures to address the ensuing issues, if the situation warrants.