Telecom firms News

To upgrade and expand their infrastructure to address the issue of call drops.

Reliance Jio led the mobile segment in terms of new customers addition with net addition of 73.44 lakh subscribers.

In the meeting, all mobile service providers were also directed to file a report of their network performance comprising call drops and efforts made by them for the month of July by evening of August 16.

Two telecom firms, chargesheeted in the 2002 additional spectrum allocation case, Friday withdrew from Delhi High Court their plea challenging the special 2G court's jurisdiction to deal with the matter.

"Mobile companies have been asked by the High Court to provide details about mobile towers installed in UT Chandigarh within seven days," advocate Shekhar Verma, counsel for UT Chandigarh Administration, said.

Pitching for payment bank licence for telcos, telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal on Tuesday said traditional banks will not be able to deliver financial services to the lower end of the population without incurring huge losses.

CBI on Tuesday opposed in a special court the issue of jurisdiction raised by two telecom firms, chargesheeted in additional spectrum allocation case of 2002, saying the case fell under the ambit of 2G spectrum scam which clear from the orders of the Supreme Court.

The minister said he has asked sectoral regulator TRAI to suggest a disincentive mechanism to tackle the problem, though he refused to share if it will be a financial disincentive.

Enforcement Directorate (ED) Monday told a special court that former Telecom Minister A Raja had "illegally" granted 2G spectrum licences to ineligible firms for which Rs 200 crore was allegedly transferred to Kalaignar TV, owned by DMK supremo M Karunanidhi's family.

This comes after all the stakeholders submitted their comments on Trai's consultation paper on Net Neutrality. April 24 was the last day to summit the comments.

The spectrum auction which concluded on March 25 attracted bids worth Rs 1,09,874.91 crore.

The biggest telecom spectrum auction ended on Wednesday after 19 days of fierce bidding and fetched about Rs 1.10 lakh crore to the government.

A special court has allowed CBI to drop Enforcement Directorate's Assistant Director Satyendra Singh as a prosecution witness in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case.

A special 2G court on Tuesday fixed February 6 to hear the 2002 additional spectrum allocation scam case in which the CBI had chargesheeted former Telecom Secretary Shyamal Ghosh and three telecom firms.

Even as the proposed spectrum auction is expected to generate up to Rs 96,000 crore for the government, the debt levels of telecom firms are likely to go up due to sizeable payouts, rating agency ICRA said on Friday.

Government has asked telecom firms to implement full mobile number portability by May 3, a move that will enable subscribers to retain their numbers when they shift to other states or licensed service areas.

The penalty escalates to Rs 5,000 per wrong CAF if compliance rate is between 90-95 percent and goes up to 50,000 per form if it is below 80 percent.

The adjusted gross revenue on which government levies licence and other regulatory fees increased by 16.26 percent on yearly basis at Rs 41,016 crore during the reported quarter.