Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited slashes local and STD roaming tariffs, abolishes monthly rental for roaming for Delhi subscribers.
An apex committee under DoT Secretary R Chandraskehar has been set up to oversee the required policy decisions and institutional framework for an alliance between the two public sector undertakings which have been incurring losses.
Other members of the search panel are secretary (personnel) Shantanu Consul, telecom secretary P J Thomas, IIT Chennai professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IIM Ahmedabad professor Samir Baruha and IISC Bangalore professor N Balakrishnan.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the two big state-controlled telecom companies, have written to the government asking that it bear the entire cost of the additional spectrum assigned to the two giants.
The service has been launched in partnership with transmission solutions firm Sterlite Technologies.
The circumstances under which United Carbide Chief Warren Anderson suddenly fled the country after he arrived in the aftermath of Bhopal Gas Tragedy will continue to remain in mystery with the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, which could also have thrown some light, unable to provide phone call details.
A deputy general manager for Global System for Mobile Communications services and assistant general manager (sales) of MTNL, Mumbai, had allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy with nine distributors of MTNL subscriber identity module (SIM) cards and helped them in extracting commission from the company on the basis of fake customer forms.
If candidates from the private sector are selected, this will be the first time that these telecom PSUs are headed by chiefs from the private sector.
A decision on the merger will take some time as there are procedural problems with MTNL being a listed entity and BSNL non-listed.
The prime minister's directive comes in the wake of telecom minister A Raja seeking his intervention for early resolution of BSNL's tender controversy.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has rejected a proposal by Communications Minister A Raja for refund of the Rs 29,598 crore paid by state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited for third generation (3G) and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum.
The top three fixed line players Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited and Bharti Airtel reported a revenue decline.
Upon discovery of the price for 3G and Broadband Wireless Access spectrum, BSNL and MTNL recently paid Rs 18,500.38 crore (Rs 185 billion) and Rs 11,097.97 crore (Rs 110.97 billion), respectively, to the government.
While the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has approved the access of TV on mobiles, service providers still cannot stream live TV channels on to the handset due to spectrum allocation from the Ministry of Information and Broadcast. However, since the regulations do not allow a direct transmission of TV channels, service providers as well as content providers have started using a technology called Unicast which provides content to end-user on a one-on-one basis.
In April, DoT introduced a graded penalty system under which operators pay Rs 50,000 per subscriber if more than 20 per cent of their user base is without valid identity documents.
One tenth mobile subscribers in India own multiple mobile phone connections, says a report.
"We have tied up with a technology partner, who is carrying out the field trials. We would provide 21 channels," MTNL Executive Director J Gopal told PTI. The company launched on Thursday Express alert, a value-added service for its Dolphin and Trump mobile subscribers. Subscribing to Express alert would give MTNL customers updates on astrology, cricket scores, news and stock.
The PSU is planning to convert Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30-billion) loan into long term debt.
The proposed merger between two state-run telecom giants -- Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited -- might have hit a roadblock, but both the companies plan to synergise their operations across the country.
BSNL was formed on Oct 1, 2000 and it had decided to included all the Central level Government Officers and employees, who were working on DOT basis, in BSNL fold and accordingly, group 'B' and group 'C' employees and group 'D' officers were included in BSNL. But still, the officers of group 'A', currently working as GM and DGM, have not been included in BSNL and they have been working on deputation as central level administrative officers.
The public sector unit had borrowed Rs 7,500 crore (Rs 75 billion) in the last one month to pay the government for acquiring 3G and Broadband Wireless Access spectrum in the two metros of Delhi and Mumbai.
A look into some handsets that allow you to surf at 3G speeds.
In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for IT and Communications Shakeel Ahmad said a consortium of consultants led by ICICI Securities has suggested some options for restructuring of MTNL and BSNL.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited has stopped offering new mobile connections in Mumbai as equipment supplier ITI has failed to expand the capacity, contracts for which were placed over an year ago under the reserve quota for public sector firms.
Telecom services across the country are expected to be hit following Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited employees' indefinite strike from Wednesday, demanding immediate placement of equipment orders for expansion of its mobile network.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has got two Mhz of additional spectrum from Department of Telecom to support its growing mobile subscriber base in the country.
MTNL had earlier reduced the call charges from Trump to MTNL landline from Rs 1.50 per minute to 90p per minute from January 1 this year. However from January 26, a flat rate of 90p per minute is applicable to calls to any local number of Mumbai across all operators.
A poser by CPI-M member Sitaram Yechury on whether Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited are deliberately not setting up towers to favour private companies left Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran seething with anger.
The all-India reserve price of a 3G licence is Rs 2,020 crore (Rs 20.2 billion).
Unlike the normal PC, Nova netPC does away with many hardware requirements like a central processing unit or CPU. It, instead, uses a central network server to run software applications and store data.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited employees and executives across the country will go on a strike on July 11 to press the government to immediately place the purchase order for the 45.5 million GSM contract to the selected vendors.
Star India has launched an internet facility for mobile users, especially targeted at small-end and rural users. The new mobile application termed PLUS is at present available for free and is accessible on Hutch, Idea, BPL, BSNL, Spice and MTNL.
Millennium Telecom, a joint venture company of two telecom PSUs Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has floated a Rs 1,600-crore (Rs 16-billion) tender to lay a submarine cable between India and South East Asia, the landing station for which would be located in West Bengal. "The cable landing station for this cable would be set up at Digha in West Bengal," the department of telecommunication has informed the state government.
The refund also includes interest payment of Rs 166.19 crore (Rs 1.66 billion), which would increase the net profit of MTNL for the last financial year. "The interest component will have an impact on our net profitability. We are expecting it to go up by about Rs 120 crore," MTNL Director (Finance) Anita Soni told PTI. The company has lined up huge investments to ramp its GSM capacity both in Delhi and Mumbai and also broadband network.
Railway Minister Nitish Kumar has said that negotiations are on with the telecom ministry for equity participation of MTNL and BSNL in RailTel Corp to improve telecom services in the Railways.
For countries to which the calling rates were at Rs 6, 8 and 12 have now been reduced to Rs 4, 6 and Rs 8 per minute respectively. The new rates will be effective from Friday, company's Executive Director A K Arora said in a statement.
In a setback to state-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, telecom dispute settlement tribunal TDSAT on Monday refused to grant a stay, through an nterim order, on implementation of the new Access Deficit Charge regime from February 1.
The spat over the carriage of national long distance traffic between Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited may be heading towards a reconciliatory note.
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