NEW DELHI,  DECEMBER 20, 2004 : BSNL on Monday warned that the land line telephone charges would go up considerably in case telecom regulator TRAI reduces the ADC which the public sector company gets from private operators for its rural operations. "Land line telecom charges are below cost.

A K Sinha, CMD, BSNL, said that the telephone rental per month could be as high as Rs 360 and call charges also could increase if the ADC is reduced. ADC is not a benefit to BSNL, but covers its cost in providing services in rural areas and in fact all private basic operators who go to rural areas get the ADC.

NEWDELHI , DECEMBER 09, 2004 : In the 33rd amendment to the Telecom Tariff Order notified today, Telecom operators will now be able to offer a special set of tariffs for calls to their own customers and different rates to subscribers of any other network. This will advantage large and connected telecom operators such as Reliance, Bharti, BSNL and Tatas which will be able to offer special packages to their subscribers for intra-network calls.

BSNL moves the Advertising Council against AIRTEL advertisement

New Delhi, Dec. 7 : Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has moved the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) against an advertisement published by Airtel in which the company claimed that it is the only mobile service provider in J&K. It has urged ASCI to restrain Airtel from publishing such misleading advertisements.

Airtel, in its advertisement in a news magazine dated November 22, 2004, stated that it is the "only one mobile service that takes you to Jammu and Kashmir." But the fact is that the former Prime Minister, Mr Vajpayee, had launched BSNL's mobile service in the Jammu and Kashmir in August 2003, much before Airtel's service was launched.

The letter further states that Airtel's claim of it being the only mobile service provider in Jammu and Kashmir was totally false, unfair, deceptive and misleading, in addition to a misrepresentation of facts. "Such an advertisement deserves to be condemned as unfair trade practice, as it not only contains a false statement but also misleading to the public at large," BSNL said.

BSNL lost 32.6 lakh subscriber in 2003-04

DECEMBER 03, 2004 NEW DELHI: In 2003-04, 32.60 lakh phones were either disconnected or surrendered, while in 2002-03 the comparable figure was 17.93 lakh phones, Shakeel Ahmad, the Minister of State for IT and Telecom, told Rajya Sabha in written reply to a query on Thursday.

DECEMBER 03, 2004 NEW DELHI: Telecom regulator Trai will submit its recommendation on trim in Access Deficit Charge (ADC) rates by Tuesday which it said will commit to 30-40 per cent drop in telecom tariffs. Trai chairman Mr. Baijal said on the sidelines of CEO's Conclave organised by Voice & Data. ADC on both national long distance and international long distance calls would come down. He said cut in ADC can bring down telecom tariffs and boost the growth of the sector. To drive up tele density in rural areas, tariffs must fall further, Baijal said adding that licence must allow broadband to have telephony so that tariffs can fall further. He said that, in the next Union Budget, government levies on broadband should be slashed.

CDMA user can change their handsets

20 NOV. 2004 : CDMA subscribers can change their handsets like their GSM counterparts. Currently, there is no active market for second hands as handsets have to be activated by the operator.

But CDMA operator Reliance Infocomm is working on changing this. The company has set up a special team to spearhead the development of a second-hand market and is planning initiatives to boost the sales of second- hand handsets.

The first initiative is being kicked off on November 22 with the launch of a 'virtual sim card'. This card is available in a kit which is nothing but a scratch card with a unique activation code. Subscribers can activate any Reliance network compliant handset with the code and get a new phone number. Similarly, the handset can be deactivated. The Reliance Get Started Kit costs Rs 220 and is pre-loaded with Rs 50 worth of talktime.

Reliance Infocomm quarter net loss at Rs 50 cr
Mumbai, Oct, 25
Reliance Infocomm, which is 45 per cent owned by petrochemicals maker Reliance Industries, had a second quarter NET LOSS of around Rs 50 crore, managing director of Reliance Industries, Anil Ambani, told a news conference on Monday.

Global telecom meet in Mumbai from Oct 25
Mumbai Oct. 21

Reliance, Tata Tele offer bus route info

News Courtesy :Business Line

Reliance Infocomm added 2.69 lakh subscribers during the month. But Tata Teleservices lost 8,080 subscribers to touch a user base of 6.9 lakh in the month. In August, it had a subscriber base of 6.98 lakh.

Bharti is not present in the CDMA-based mobile services while HFCL Infotel which operates in Punjab added 3,152 subscribers taking its total subscriber base to 43,017.

Shyam Telelink, operator in Rajasthan, also lost marginally with the loss of 11 subscribers to take its users base to 26,635. In August, it had a subscriber base of 26,786.

In PSUs, MTNL's total subscriber base including fixed line and WLL (M) in Delhi and Mumbai was 42.54 lakh, marginally lower than its August figure of 42.94 lakh. 

News Courtesy : The Economic Times

Nokia bags BSNL deal worth Rs 1,120 cr
Mumbai , Oct. 7