Vodafone India contesting Matrix Cellular allegations over SIM renting case:

Telecom operator Vodafone has contested allegations levelled on it by international SIM card provider Matrix Cellular that the telecom major misrepresented facts in SIM renting case of 2007 in which Department of Telecom and Intelligence Bureau found various irregularities.

"The allegations made by Matrix are without merit and will be strongly contested, as appropriate," Vodafone India's spokesperson told PTI in response to e-mail query. In 2007, DoT had found involvement of Vodafone, Airtel and Idea in a case where the three had sold bulk connections to third parties who in turn were selling those SIM cards to retail subscribers and in the process flouted certain rules. The Department is also learnt to be in process of issuing fresh show cause notice to these companies.

DoT says it has found Vodafone and Matrix Cellular entered into one such agreement, but Vodafone, before the telecom tribunal TDSAT, had contested "that it had no knowledge of the purported activities of 'Matrix' so far as giving on rental the SIM cards issued to it is concerned."

Matrix has alleged that Vodafone misrepresented facts to DoT and TDSAT. "Matrix believes that Vodafone has misrepresented facts to the DoT and TDSAT. The business that Matrix engaged in was at all times legal and with the express, written consent of Vodafone", it had said last week.

DoT amends unified telecom licence, removes 'forced migration' clause:

Accepting the industry demand, the Department of Telecom has amended the unified telecom licence to do away with the clause which operators claimed mandated 'forced migration' to the new regime. The initial unified licence (new regime) mandated operators to migrate all their telecom licences to the new regime on expiry of one in any of their circles, which the industry had dubbed as 'forced migration'.

The amendment has done away with the clause that read: "However, the telecom service provider has to migrate all of its existing licences." The amended clause now reads: "In order to ensure that the UL (unified licence) regime covers all existing licences, a migration path is offered to the existing licences to migrate to UL regime. Licences of any of the existing Telecom Services Provider shall be eligible to migrate to UL with any number of additional services."

Under the initial version of unified licence, Airtel and Vodafone were the first set of companies which needed to move all their existing permits to new regime by the last quarter of 2014. Airtel's two licences, Delhi and Kolkata, and Vodafone's three licences - Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai - are due to expire in last quarter of 2014. Post-amendment, the two operators do not need to shift all their existing licences to new regime by last quarter of 2014.

The amended version brings relief to even pureplay internet service providers where most of the players are either mid-size and small companies. Cellular Operators Association of India in a letter to DoT had said that unified licence guidelines require compulsory migration to the new regime under several circumstances.

FIPB defers meeting on Vodafone proposal to December 9:

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) which was scheduled to meet on Friday to consider the Rs 10,141-crore proposal of Vodafone Plc to acquire the remaining stake in its Indian arm has postponed the meeting for December 9.

However, no reason was assigned for postponement of the meeting.

"...the 199th meeting of the FIPB which was scheduled to be held on Friday, the December 6, 2013... has been postponed and will now be held on Monday, the December 9, 2013...," the Finance Ministry said. The Vodafone proposal along with 10 other would now be taken up on Monday, it added.

CGP India Investments, an indirect Mauritian unit of Vodafone International Holdings BV, is seeking approval to buy the entire stake held by minority shareholders in Vodafone India.

The UK telecom giant at present holds a 64.38 per cent stake in the Indian unit.

Vodafone's minority investors include billionaire industrialist Ajay Piramal, who holds an 11 per cent stake in India's second-largest telecom company by subscribers. 

The remaining stake is with undisclosed shareholders. Analjit Singh, Vodafone India's non-executive chairman, is understood to be among them.

The proposal was earlier listed on the agenda of FIPB's meeting on November 13 but could not taken up for want of comments from various ministries.

Opinions were sought from the Department of Telecom, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs and the Department of Revenue.

Trai chairman indicates hike in rates of telephone, TV broadcast services:

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Chairman Rahul Khullar has hinted at an increase in price of telephone and television broadcast services, saying rates cannot remain static for ever.

"The idea... to live in luxurious world where prices will remain static for ever and ever... this is a pipedream which we have got to get rid of," Khullar said at India Telecom 2013 while talking about convergence.

The chairman was talking about convergence of telecom and broadcast network where customers will be able to access video services besides making calls and using internet through common devices specially mobile phone.

Khullar said that modernised networks to support convergence will call for investments.

Citing example of transformation in cable network that will require transformation to provide cable TV as well as broadband services, Khullar said: "Its not the same old cable network that can do it for us. As convergence proceeds, it will be contingent on the flow of capital. As it is contingent on the flow of capital, there has to be pay back. It means customers have to pay for every thing," he said.

Department of Telecom and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting have started working on a fresh convergence bill where they are learnt to be working out details of the network rather than looking at content.

For setting up any TV or radio channel, a company is required to take permission from both I&B Ministry and DoT.

While broadcasting licences are governed by I&B ministry, airwaves required for broadcasting are allocated by Wireless Planning Commission under DoT.

Khullar said as the network will converge their security will become very important issue and quality of service parameters will also have to change.

He called for convergence in the functioning of DoT and I&B Ministry to speed up process of convergence.

Government considering Rs. 25,000 crore additional expenditure on rural Wi-Fi:

The INDIAN government is considering a proposal to spend an additional Rs. 25,000 crore over 10 years to provide Wi-Fi services in rural areas.

The Department of Telecom and the Ministry of Rural Development are jointly considering extending Wi-Fi services in rural areas using the National Optical Fibre Network, which is being laid to connect 2.5 lakh villages, sources said.

Wi-Fi helps consumers to connect to the Internet without using mobile data services. Devices such as tablet computers that have only Wi-Fi connectivity are cheaper than those that can also use cellular data services.

The proposal would require a capital expenditure of Rs. 3,900 crore, according to an estimate by DoT. Besides, the operational expenditure every year will be Rs. 2,060 crore.

"The capex will met out of USO (Universal Service Obligation) Fund and operating expenditure will be met by the rural development ministry for a period of 10 years," an official source said.

The Ministry of Rural Development has said it has no such provision in its budget and will need Cabinet approval to fund the proposal.

The next meeting on the proposal is likely to be held in the last week of this month.

The Cabinet approved Rs. 20,000 crore for the optical fibre network project in 2011 and it is expected to be completed in 2014-15.