Snehal khanna Blog

The Indian regulator has taken a position in stark contrast to its US counterpart, the FCC whose actions are a reminder that regulation itself is subject to political vagaries, & changing governments TRAI has come out with its recommendations for the net-neutrality regime in India. This comes close on the heels of its counterpart in the US turning its back on it two years after it had endorsed it. The author looks at TRAI’s recommendations and also at what the big influencers were in this matter globally. We can now say, with some certainty, that the Indian telecom regulator (TRAI)’s support for net-neutrality is among the strongest in the world. The timing could not be more auspicious – TRAI now stands tall alongside European regulators, even as it positions itself in stark contrast to its US counterpart, the Federal Communication Commission, where the Trump appointee Chairman Ajit Pai infamously proposed a roll back of net-neutrality rules last week. Yesterday, TRA...

IoT also under non-discriminatory treatment, but with a rider exempting critical services identified by DoT LATEST NEWS  : Telecom sector regulator Trai has recommended upholding the basic principle of keeping internet free and not allowing any discrimination based on content. However, the regulator has proposed to exempt specialised services, which are optimised for specific content and are not internet services. Department of Telecommunications (DoT) may identify these specialised services. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has also included internet of things (IoT) to fall under the non-discriminatory treatment but with a rider saying critical IoT services, which may be identified by DoT, would be exempted. Also, the regulator has exempted content delivery networks (CDNs), which enable mobile operators to deliver content within its network without going through the public internet as also allowing telecom operators to deploy traffic management practic...

India's taxpayer has won in a war on corruption, but may well be losing an equivalent money again as a consumer, or likely, as a taxpayer LATEST NEWS : We wish India's telecom saga would be a Bollywood movie, with a happy ending. But what we have witnessed since the May of 1994, when India began slowly easing the state grip on telecoms to usher in everything from private players to mobile phones to the Internet, is a long-winding soap opera.  In line with the spirit of the saas-bahu nation, we can announce that Reliance Jio is the much loved and hated new bahu (daughter-in-law)  in this opera, impressing everyone and upsetting the older order. If you are looking not for entertaining conflicts but deep wisdom, it is this: India's taxpayer has won in a war on corruption, but may well be losing an equivalent money again as a consumer, or likely, as a taxpayer. Does it matter if someone picks your right pocket instead of left to take out the same amount of mo...

Charges to be zero in two years; incumbents set to move court LATEST NEWS : In a fresh blow to incumbent mobile operators, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has cut the interconnect usage charges (IUC, also known as terminating charges) by 57 per cent to 6 paise per minute effective October 1, from 14 paise currently. In two years, the charges would come down to zero, meaning there won’t be any payment for calls landing on other telcos’ networks. The new charges are being seen as a relief for the latest entrant, Reliance Jio . It is estimated to save about Rs 3,800 crore annually from this move. However, the reduction is likely to hit the profitability and revenues of the incumbents further. Analysts at HSBC said in a recent note that a significantly lower IUC would be a boost for Jio and there may be some more pricing disruption after downward revision of IUC rates. Jio has, since its launch last year, paid about Rs ...

It alleged non-implementation of the interconnect user charges (IUC) report has given a huge benefit to them LATEST NEWS  :   In a strong attack on incumbent operators, Reliance Jio has alleged that non-implementation of the interconnect user charges (IUC) report of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in 2011 has given a huge benefit of over Rs 100,000 crore to the three major operators in the last five years. In 2011 TRAI had recommended that the IUC charges be cut to half from 20 paisa to Rs 10 paisa and gradually shift to the bill and keep model by 2014 in an affidavit to the Supreme court. Instead of moving to a zero IUC model in 2014  it was only brought down to 14 paisa with the mandate that it will be relooked after three years. Jio says that the three incumbents benefited due to the non-implementation of this recommendation. The surplus recovery that the three incumbent operators have made is based on the net present value (whi...

With current market share, Jio stood 4th in overall base, behind Airtel, Vodafone and Idea LATEST NEWS    : Reliance Jio added nearly 5 million users ( 4,786,324 subscribers )  and controlled 9.94 per cent of the telecom market in May, shows the latest report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). In May, Airtel led in terms of overall telecom market share, with 23.59 per cent subscribers. It was followed by Vodafone with a 17.86 per cent share, and Idea with 16.62. Reliance Jio was a distant fourth with 9.94 per cent subscribers. According to the report, the telecom industry saw a net addition of 6,228,813 customers in May. While Airtel, Vodafone, BSNL, Reliance Jio and Idea Cellular continue to add subscribers to their base, telecom operators such as Telenor and Tata lose most of their subscribers. Last year, Reliance Jio had entered the highly competitive telecom space with a free preview plan that offered unlimited free 4G high-speed ...

All customers who have already subscribed to the offer would continue to be eligible for it Complying with the   Telecom  Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai’s) advice, Reliance Jio on Thursday withdrew its Summer Surprise offer. Announced last week, the scheme promised to provide complimentary services to every Jio Prime member for three months starting April 1. The company confirmed complying with Trai’s advice. Under the scheme, all Prime members making their first recharge payment of Rs 303 (or higher) would have got three months’ complimentary services in addition to the benefits of their purchased plan. All customers who have already subscribed to the offer would continue to be eligible for it, the company said. Jio  started billing customers from April 1. The company claimed about 72 million users had subscribed to its Jio Prime service. ALSO READ : Reliance Jio stops Summer Surprise scheme: 5 things to know The complimentary offers by Jio in the...