By Reuters | Updated: 7 June 2023

India’s cabinet on Wednesday approved an Rs. 89,000 crore ($10.79 billion) revival package for loss-making Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) to help the state-owned telecom operator deploy 4G and 5G services in a market dominated by private players.

“With this revival package, BSNL will emerge as a stable telecom service provider focused on providing connectivity to remotest parts of India,” the cabinet said in a statement.

The development comes days after BSNL partnered with top software company Tata Consultancy Services to help deploy 4G network across the country at a time when larger rivals were rolling out next-generation 5G network.

Debt-laden BSNL, grappling with poor infrastructure, has been posting losses for the past 12 years. The losses narrowed to Rs. 69.82 billion in the year ended March 2022 from Rs. 74.41 billion a year ago.

The company has also been struggling to win customers in the face of intense price competition from Reliance Industries-owned Reliance Jio Infocomm, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.

The telecom market in India was upended by Jio’s launch in 2016, when it offered free calls and cut-price data plans, eroding the profit and revenue of rivals and leading to consolidation.

Shares of state-owned telecom firm Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd surged 14.3 percent after the news on a revival package for BSNL.

($1 = 82.5057 Indian rupees)

© Thomson Reuters 2023

By Press Trust of India | Updated: 3 June 2023

In order to curb the menace of pesky calls and sms, telecom regulator TRAI has directed service providers to develop a unified digital platform in two months to seek, maintain and revoke customers’ consent for promotional calls and messages.

In the first phase, only subscribers will be able to initiate the process to register their consent for receiving promotional calls and sms, and later, business entities will be able to reach out to customers to seek their consent to receive promotional messages, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in a statement on Saturday.

“TRAI has now issued a direction to all the access providers to develop and deploy the Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) facility for creating a unified platform and process to register customers’ consent digitally across all service providers and principal entities,” TRAI said.

At present, there is no unified system to show the consent of customers for getting promotional messages.

“Considering the volume of work involved, TRAI has allocated two months time to develop such facilities by all Access Providers and thereafter implement it in a phased manner. This direction has been issued by TRAI under its Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulations, 2018,” TRAI said.

Under the prevalent system, consent is obtained and maintained by various principal entities such as banks, other financial institutions, insurance companies, trading companies, business entities, real estate companies, etc.

The absence of a unified digital platform makes it impossible for telecom operators to check the veracity of consent.

“The DCA process shall have the facility to seek, maintain and revoke the consent of customers, as per the processes envisaged under TCCCP Regulation 2018. The consent data collected will be shared on the Digital Ledger Platform (DLT) for scrubbing by all access providers,” TRAI said.

Access providers, which include telecom players like Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, have been further directed to use a common short code starting with 127 for sending consent-seeking messages.

“The purpose, the scope of the consent, and the principal entity or brand name shall be mentioned clearly in the consent-seeking message sent through the short code,” the statement said.

Only whitelisted or approved web or app links, callback numbers, etc will be allowed to be used in the consent-seeking messages, it said.

“Further, access providers shall develop an SMS, IVR (interactive voice response), online facility to register unwillingness of the customers to receive any consent-seeking messages initiated by any principal entity,” the statement added.

“The purpose, the scope of the consent, and the principal entity or brand name shall be mentioned clearly in the consent-seeking message sent through the short code,” the statement said.

Only whitelisted or approved web or app links, callback numbers, etc will be allowed to be used in the consent-seeking messages, it said.

“Further, access providers shall develop an SMS, IVR (interactive voice response), online facility to register unwillingness of the customers to receive any consent-seeking messages initiated by any principal entity,” the statement added.

By Press Trust of India | Updated: 27 May 2023

The Delhi High Court has refused to interfere with TRAI’s recommendation for imposing a penalty of Rs. 1,050 crore on two Vodafone companies for allegedly denying inter-connectivity to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) under an Interconnection Agreement executed between them.

The high court noted that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) October 21, 2016 recommendation, which has been challenged here is also under challenge before the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), and tribunals are expert bodies constituted under statute to decide the disputes arising under that statute.

A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad, in its May 24 judgment, said the TDSAT has been empowered to deal with all disputes arising under the TRAI Act.

The Central government had passed an order on September 29, 2021 imposing a penalty on the petitioner companies for violation of the provisions of licence agreement and standards of Quality of Service (QOS) regulations of basic telephone service (wireline) and cellular mobile telephone service regulations, 2009.

“After the tribunal gives the conclusion that the order dated September 29, 2021 passed by the respondent no.2 (government) is not sustainable in law, then automatically the recommendation dated October 21, 2016 which is under challenge in the instant writ petitions would be set aside.

“This court finds considerable force in the arguments advanced by the senior counsel for the respondents that any observations made by this court in the instant writ petitions will have an adverse impact on the Telecom Petitions which have been filed before the TDSAT,” the bench said.

The high court disposed of the petitions filed by Vodafone Mobile Services and Vodafone Idea and made it clear that it has not made any observations on the merits of the case.

“It is always open for the tribunal to decide the issue on merits, including the recommendation dated October 21, 2016 which is under challenge in the instant petitions,” it said.

It also noted that the TDSAT has already stayed the September 2021 order.

On September 21, 2016, TRAI issued the a recommendation stating that the petitioners were at fault for not providing Point of Interconnections (POI) to RJIL, and recommended imposition of a penalty of Rs. 50 crore per circle for 21 Licensed Service Areas (LSA) where POI congestion exceeded the allowable limit of 0.5 percent.

The petitioners said they requested TRAI to withdraw the recommendation, but to no avail after which they moved the high court.

Vodafone has challenged the recommendation made by TRAI to the Secretary, Department of Telecommunication, for penal action, contending that the recommendation was contrary to law and deserved to be struck down.

TRAI opposed the petitions saying they are premature at this stage and non-maintainable.

By Press Trust of India | Updated: 25 May 2023

TRAI on Thursday said all principal entities, like banks, financial institutions, and others, need to complete the process of verification of message headers and content templates immediately, as the telecom regulator forged ahead with its drive to crackdown on pesky messages to safeguard consumers. Any delay on part of Principal Entities (PEs) to get the reverification of headers and content templates may result in the blocking of their headers, content templates and messages, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) cautioned.

TRAI said it will review the progress in the next two weeks and may issue suitable directions, if required.

“Therefore, all the PEs should complete the process of verification of Headers and Content Templates immediately,” TRAI said in a statement.

Entities such as banks, other financial institutions, insurance companies, trading companies, business entities etc. send commercial messages to the telecom subscribers through SMS, and these entities are referred to as Principal Entities (PEs) in TRAI regulations.

As per the regulatory framework, any commercial communication can only take place using registered Headers assigned to the PEs for this purpose. Header refers to an alphanumeric string assigned to PEs under the regulations to send commercial communications.

These commercial entities are required to get content templates registered with the access providers (telcos). Any commercial communication through SMS is subjected to scrubbing against the content template registered by PEs with Access Provider and, if it fails, then those SMSs are not allowed to be delivered to the consumers.

As per the regulatory framework, any commercial communication can only take place using registered Headers assigned to the PEs for this purpose. Header refers to an alphanumeric string assigned to PEs under the regulations to send commercial communications.

These commercial entities are required to get content templates registered with the access providers (telcos). Any commercial communication through SMS is subjected to scrubbing against the content template registered by PEs with Access Provider and, if it fails, then those SMSs are not allowed to be delivered to the consumers.

By Press Trust of India | Updated: 25 May 2023

5G network in India crossed 2 lakh mobile sites with the commissioning of the latest unit in Gangotri on Wednesday. The 5G site at Gangotri was inaugurated by Union Minister for Communications and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.

“Today practically every minute one 5G site is getting activated. The world is surprised. It is a matter of pride for us that 2 lakh site has been installed in Chardham,” Vaishnaw said.

The Prime Minister has said that India will stand along with the world in 5G and take the lead in 6G, he noted.

Vaishnaw said that gone are the days when technology transfers used to be signed.

“Today India has become a technology exporter,” Vaishnaw added.

The first 1 lakh 5G sites were rolled out within 5 months of the launch of service by the Prime Minister on October 1. The next 1 lakh sites have been rolled out in three months.

“Today, devotees of Chardham have received a present in the form of a 5G site. Now, our border area will also get wrapped up with mobile connectivity. The dream that we saw of high-speed connectivity in the hilly area of Uttarakhand has been fulfilled today,” Dhami said.

He said that the start of high-speed service will help in relief and disaster management, surveillance and boost the economy. The ministers also dedicated optical fibre connectivity of Chardham — Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamnotri and Gangotri — in Uttarakhand to the nation.

By Press Trust of India | Updated: 25 May 2023

BSNL has started rolling out of 4G network with 200 sites, and after a three-month trial, it will launch an average of 200 sites per day, Union IT and Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday.

The minister said the 4G network of BSNL will be upgraded to 5G by November-December.

“The 4G-5G telecom stack we have developed in India. That stack deployment started with BSNL. Between Chandigarh and Dehradun, 200 sites installations have been done and within the next maximum of two weeks, it will go live,” Vaishnaw said.

BSNL has placed an advance purchase order of over Rs. 19,000 crore with Tata Consultancy Services and ITI Limited for the deployment of a 4G network, comprising more than 1.23 lakh sites.

“The speed at which BSNL will deploy, you will be surprised. After testing for three months, we will be doing 200 sites a day. That is the average at which we will go. BSNL network will work initially like 4G. Very soon, somewhere around November- December, with a very small software adjustment this will become 5G,” Vaishnaw said.

He was speaking to reporters after commissioning the 2,00,000th site in Gangotri along with Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.

“Today practically every minute one 5G site is getting activated. The world is surprised. It is a matter of pride for us that the 2,00,000th site has been installed in Chardham,” Vaishnaw said.

The Prime Minister has said that India will stand along with the world in 5G and take the lead in 6G, he noted.

Vaishnaw said that gone are the days when technology transfers used to be signed.

“Today India has become a technology exporter,” Vaishnaw added.

The first 1 lakh 5G sites were rolled out within 5 months of the launch of service by the Prime Minister on October 1.

The next 1 lakh sites have been rolled out in three months.

“We had set a target to have around 1.5 lakh sites by December 31, 2023. Already 2 lakh sites have been completed, I feel by December 31, it should be more than 3 lakh sites,” Vaishnaw said.

He said that countries like the US have started deploying made-in-India telecom technologies.

“Today, devotees of Chardham have received a present in the form of a 5G site. Now, our border area will also get wrapped up with mobile connectivity. The dream that we saw of high-speed connectivity in the hilly area of Uttarakhand has been fulfilled today,” Dhami said.

He said that the start of high-speed service will help in relief and disaster management, surveillance, and boost the economy.

The ministers also dedicated optical fibre connectivity of Chardham — Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamnotri and Gangotri — in Uttarakhand to the nation.