ITV

Tag: Trai

  • 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.

  • Star & Vijay TV amend plea, TRAI asked by Madras HC to file response

    NEW DELHI: The Madras High Court today decided to hear on 24 March the case by  Star India and Vijay TV alleging that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India tariff and other orders allegedly were in conflict with Copyright Act 1957.

    This development came after the HC allowed an amended application from petitioners to be filed, which, according to industry sources, broadly states that TRAI regulations involving tariff, etc are bad in law.

    Following the Supreme Court directive of 16 February 2017 on an appeal permitting TRAI to issue its tariff and other orders even as the case would continue in the High Court, both the broadcasters had filed an amended petition. The court also directed TRAI to file its reply by Wednesday next.

    TRAI had issued three regulations, including one on tariff on 16 January 2017, the day the Supreme Court gave its clearance.

    The broadcasters had sought to argue that the TRAI orders are in conflict with the Copyright Act 1957. As a result of that court order and pending the full hearing of the case, TRAI would not be able to pass any guideline for issues such as broadcast tariff, broadcast interconnect, and quality of services. The temporary stay by Madras HC was over-ruled by SC later.

    It is also expected that a final judgment on the case could come about by 3 April 2017 in the Madras HC, if not before that date.

    Last year, TRAI had issued draft guidelines on tariff interconnect and quality of service, and TRAI chairman RS Sharma had then told indiantelevision.com that the regulator would come out with its final recommedation by the end of 2016.

    It may be recalled that the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) had also said in reaction to the TRAI drafts that the exercise was in direct conflict with the provisions of the Indian Copyright Act.

    The comments had been stated in a submission to the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable Services) Interconnection (Addressable Systems) Regulations 2016; the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable Services) (Eighth) (Addressable Systems) Tariff Order 2016; and the Standards of Quality of Service) and Consumer Protection (Digital Addressable Systems) Regulations 2016.

    The All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF), which had made itself party to the case after being allowed by the Madras High Court, till the time of writing this report had not yet made up its mind whether to further join issues with petitoners’ amended application in Madras High Court.

    Also read

    Maintain status quo on broadcast guidelines, Madras HC tells TRAI

  • Net neutrality: TRAI open to ideas till 12 April

    NEW DELHI: A second extension has been given to stakeholders to give their views on the crucial issue of net neutrality, on which a consultation paper had been issued by theTelecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 4 January, 2017,

    Those wanting to give their views on this subject may do so by 12 April with counter comments if any by 26 April 2017.

    Earlier, the date of 15 February 2017 had been extended to 15 March 2017. The regulator made it clear that no further extension would be given.

    The aim is to establish a comprehensive framework that allows non-discriminatory access to the internet since net neutrality has been a subject of debate between content providers and telecom operators.

    TRAI  posed 14 questions that attempt to define the concept of net neutrality in the Indian context in a 65-page document. This follows a pre-consultation paper on the subject last May. The aim is to ensure that access is not, blocked, throttled or preferentially treated by service providers.

    “The purpose of this second stage of consultation is to proceed towards the formulation of final views on policy or regulatory interventions, where required, on the subject of NN (net neutrality),” Trai said in the paper.

    The paper said telecom service providers (TSPs) have to adopt traffic management practices to ensure network efficiency but that these should not be misused.

    Also Read:

    TRAI issues fresh paper seeking views on Net Neutrality definition

    Net Neutrality ideas date open till 28 Feb

  • India’s average internet speed increased in fourth quarter of CY-16

    BENGALURU: India lags behind Sri Lanka with a global rank of 97 versus the latter’s rank of 73 in terms of Average Connection Speed (IPv4) by APAC Country/Region as per Akamai’s State of Internet report for the fourth quarter of calendar year 2016 (Q4-16). However, the average internet speed in India in Q4-16 at 5.6 Mbps has improved 36 percent as compared to the speed of 4.1 Mbps mentioned in Akamai’s State of Internet report for Q3-16. Year-on-year (y-o-y), India’s average internet speed has almost doubled, it has grown by 99 percent.

    India was ranked 105 globally as compared to Sri Lanka’s rank of 75 in Q3-16. Sri Lanka’s average speed in the Q4-16 report was 7.3 Mbps, 21 percent more than the 6 Mbps average speed in Q3-16.

    About 38 percent of the internet connections in India have peak connection speeds in excess of 4 Mbps, a low number when compared to the 97 percent that South Korea which is the world leader with average internet speeds of 26.1 Mbps. The overall y-o-y change in the percentage of connections for internet speeds above 4Mbps was 123 percent in the case of India. In the case of an internet mature nation like Korea, the y-o-y change was 0.6 percent while the quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) change was 0.7 percent.

    In the Asia-Pacific region, Vietnam and India were the only two countries/regions to enjoy double-digit growth, as they saw 4 Mbps Broadband adoption rates increase 18 percent and 28 percent, respectively.

    The report speaks of positive developments in India, specifically mentioning Bharti Airtel’s launch of V-Fiber broadband service in the fourth quarter, offering 100 Mbps fixed broadband access. Initially rolling out in Chennai, Bharti’s service is slated to become available to 87 cities in India within a few weeks. Now if only TRAI could reclassify connections with speeds in excess of 2 Mbps as broadband as it had earlier. TRAI later backtracked then reduced the broadband classification speeds to more than a measly 512 Kpbs.

  • TRAI seeks ideas on spectrum trading, services via satellite, M&A etc. by 11 April

    MUMBAI: Indian telecom regulator TRAI has sought inputs from stakeholders on “Ease of Doing Telecom Business in India”.

    Promoting “ease of doing business” is amongst the priority work items for unhindered growth of the telecom sector. A number of steps have already been taken for ease of doing business. Steps like adoption of market based spectrum management such as assignment of spectrum through auction, permitting spectrum trading, spectrum sharing and liberalisation of administratively assigned spectrum, Unified Licensing regime, Merger and Acquisition guidelines, Virtual Network Operation etc. have been guided by the principles of “ease of doing business”.

    The stakeholders have been requested to provide inputs with detailed explanation and justification by 11 April 2017. On receipt of the inputs, TRAI will analyse them and if required, take further necessary action for simplification of processes.

    Further, the Authority is of the opinion that various processes that  a telecom licensee is required to go through, should be simplified and combined to the extent possible to economise on efforts on part of the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) as well as the Government. Therefore, it is important to identify the bottlenecks, obstacles or hindrances that are making it difficult to do telecom business in India and thus, require regulatory intervention. 

    Some of these processes could be:

    Related to Unified Licence

    * Acquiring Unified Licence, Compliance of various general / commercial /
    technical / financial / operating / commercial conditions.

    * Adding new authorisations in the UL

    * Surrendering any authorisation within the scope of UL or surrender of UL.

    * Compliance of roll-out obligations

    * Payment of Licence Fee, FBG/PBG and the release of bank guarantee, whenever due.

    * Any other issue

    Spectrum Allotment and use

    * Assignment of spectrum to the successful bidder by WPC

    * SACFA Clearance Process

    * Spectrum Trading approval process settlement of dues etc.

    * Spectrum Sharing process 

    * Liberalisation of spectrum process

    * Any other issue

    Provision of telecom services using Satellite media 

    * Clearances from INSAT Network Operations Control
    Center (NOCC)

    * Obtaining SACFA clearance and clearance from other
    authorities

    * Any other issue

    Merger and Acquisition Policy

    In addition, there can be processes in other areas which may be requiring simplification. In view of the above, the stakeholders are requested to identify such areas of concern and review the existing processes and suggest mechanisms that ease the business activity.

  • 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

  • Dish TV Videocon Ltd. may start operations in Sept ’17

    MUMBAI: With no roadblocks apprehended and approvals going ahead, the new merged direct-to-home (DTH) behemoth may start operations in September 2017. As reported by www.indiantelevision.com earlier, the new merged entity Dish TV Videocon Ltd. is set to create the single-largest DTH company in India.

    The proposed transaction remained subject to approvals, including from the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the stock exchanges, shareholders and creditors of both companies, the Competition Commission of India, the High Court of Bombay and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The proposed transaction was expected to close in the second half of 2017.

    Dish TV CMD Jawahar Goel has told Express that September was the tentative date for starting joint operations. Although, he said, August was doable, but they were sure to begin operations around September. Sources in Videocon d2h have also confirmed the launch’s anticipated timeline.

    As reported by www.indiantelevision.com, CCI recently sought TRAI’s views on the proposed merger of Dish TV and Videocon d2h and as to whether or not the deal, leading to formation of Dish TV Videocon Ltd., will violate anti-trust laws.

    Dish TV, owned by Zee Entertainment (ZEEL) and the DTH arm of Videocon Industries had in November last year announced their merger. Dish TV, as per the proposed terms, will own 55 per cent in the new entity, according to Livemint. A TRAI official confirmed that CCI has sought its views on the subject.

    Goel had said that “the arrangement of the scheme is merger and we never envisaged a buyout.” The Board of directors of the two giants had earlier approved a scheme of arrangement for the amalgamation of Vd2h into Dish TV and the execution of definitive agreements in relation to such amalgamation.

    Pursuant to the Scheme, it was earlier reported, Dish TV Videocon shall issue 857.791 million shares as consideration for the scheme and the Vd2h shareholders shall be allotted 2.021 new shares of Dish TV Videocon for every one share held in Vd2h (subject to certain adjustments as set out in the Scheme), which would result in Dish TV shareholders owning 1,066.861 million existing shares or 55.4% of Dish TV Videocon, and Vd2h shareholders owning 857.791 million new shares or 44.6% of Dish TV Videocon.

    The fully diluted share count of Dish TV at 1,066,863,665 shares, which will lead to 857,785,766 shares of Dish TV Videocon being issued to Vd2h shareholders. Exchange ratio rounded off to two decimal places. One Vd2h ADS represents four equity shares of Vd2h.

    The proposed transaction was expected to create a leading cable and satellite distribution platform in India. Dish TV Videocon would serve 27.6 million net subscribers in India, as of September 30, 2016, on a pro-forma basis, out of a total of 175 million TV households in India highlighting significant room for growth. The combined entity would have revenue of Rs. 59,158 million and EBITDA of Rs. 18,262 million on a pro-forma basis for the fiscal year ended 31 March 2016 positioning it as a leading media company in India. The proposed transaction is expected to provide better synergies and growth opportunities and enable Dish TV Videocon to provide differentiated and superior service to all customers through deeper after-sales, distribution and technology capabilities, and also become a more effective partner for TV content providers in India.

  • TRAI reducing TSP/ISPs & VSAT service-providers’ burden: Broadband Forum

    NEW DELHI: Expressing satisfaction that many of its demands had been met in the latest recommendations by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Broadband India Forum has said it is a small but significant step in the right direction to help reduce the burden of the TSP/ISPs as well as that of the VSAT service-providers thereby  paving the way for a more active engagement of the ISPs and TSPs offering Internet Access Services to increase broadband penetration in the country

    BIF president T V Ramachandran hoped that this would be the first of many such recommendations from the Regulator to expedite broadband penetration and the vision of the prime minister to fully realise the dream of ‘Digital India’.

    He said the recommendations for streamlining the procedure/process of allocation of satellite capacity and the frequency allocation subsequently by WPC for VSAT service providers and capping it to be provided in a time bound manner –within a span of  three months was indeed praiseworthy.

    He said further went on to mention that the idea of a single window clearance for all clearances/approvals/payments through a transparent online mechanism was a “wonderful and welcome idea in this age of digital payments and single point responsibility”.

    Ramachandran said BIF’s position stand vindicated on many of the points made by the Regulator stand vindicated. These include the given spectrum bands be charged administratively and on a link-by-link basis; P-AGR should not be prescribed either for ISP licenses or for Commercial VSAT Licenses; SUC calculation/determination should continue to be based on the existing formula instead of as a percentage of the AGR; and delayed payment in case of SUC should be charged on the basis of SBI PLR +2%.

    Also Read :

    Industry surprised on Deepak’s transfer from DoT, Jio connection refuted

    5G network: Huawei launches 5000 series station & microwave bearer solution

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

  • Free Jio: TDSAT reserves order on appeal for stay

    MUMBAI: Telecom tribunal TDSAT has reserved its decision on an interim appeal seeking a stay on Reliance Jio’s free promotional offer. TDSAT reserved its order after hearing all the parties concerned including the incumbent operators Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel, Jio and the regulator TRAI. Jio, however, maintained that it did not violate any tariff orders in giving out two promotional offers.

    Separately, Vodafone India had moved the Delhi High Court blaming TRAI to be acting as a mute spectator to Jio’s violations of regulations and IUC norms.

    Before TDSAT, Airtel had sought a stay on TRAI’s sanction to Jio to continue with the free promotional offer. Airtel had also alleged that TRAI is “perpetuating illegality” by allowing the 4G entrant to game the IUC regime by allowing Jio to offer free data and voice services. Idea had subsequently moved the tribunal.

    Both had also requested for a direction to TRAI to furnish records related to the authority’s decision. The appeal had also appealed for restraining Jio from offering its consumers the zero tariff plan and other promotional offers.

    Jio commercially launched on 5 September 2016 with inaugural free services, which it extended in December till 31 March, 2017.

    The regulator had on 31 January, 2017, said that Jio’s free plans were not the violation of the regulatory guidelines on promotional offers. It added that its examination found that the 4G entrant’s ‘Happy New Year Offer‘ launched on 4 December, 2016, is different from the Welcome Offer, thereby it could not be treated as an extension of the promotional offer as the benefits were different.

    Jio will now however start charging its customers for its mobile services from 1 April, 2017. The telco had also launched 10 Prime packs of users that join the network before 31 March, 2017, and had also launched a buy one get one free offer for Jio Prime users.

  • 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