Coming soon: Video chats on your BSNL landline

Soon, you can do video calls, chats/conferencing on your old BSNL land phone connection, a feature which will be facilitated after C-DoT upgrades BSNL's existing telecom infrastructure to the Next Generation Network (NGN) -- a process which has started & expected to complete within a year and a half.

ET talked to AKV Sai Jayram, Group Leader, C-DoT, whose team has been working on this cutting edge technology for a couple of years. 

C-DoT has also developed a broadband wireless terminal which can provide broadband speeds faster than 3G networks with very low capital and operational expenditure.

Source : The Economic Times

BSNL strike deferred, 78.2% IDA fitment settled

Major demand of 78.2% IDA fitment settled. Strike deferred.

Click here to view the agreement with BSNL

Click here to view details from Union Circulation.

(Both links are provided above with courtesy of BSNL Employees Union (CHQ)

National Telecom Policy 2012 Approved : No Roaming Charges and Pan India MNP One Nation – One Mobile Number

The Govt of India today approved a National Telecom Policy 2012, which will replace more than a 12 years old telecom regulations and now mobile service users will be able to avail FREE Roaming and keep their Phone Numbers even if they switch service providers anywhere in the country with the Nation Wide Intra Circle MNP, proposed in the new Telecom Policy.

The cabinet has approved the new National Telecom Policy with some changes from what was proposed earlier, The New Telecom Policy recommends one Nation, one license policy across services and service areas to abolish Roaming charges. The distinction between local and STD calls would vanish, as the policy aims at a ‘one-nation-one-licence’ regime.

With the implementation of new National Telecom Policy,  Now Telecom operators/Mobile Service providers would not require any separate licences for operations in various parts of the country and a single licence would suffice.

Under the new telecom policy, telecom ministry also provisions for inter-circle Mobile Number Portability (MNP) i.e. Full MNP, which involves changing an operator while retaining the same phone number in different telecom circles.

Highlights : New National Telecom Policy 2012  :

• One Nation-One License to mean removal of Roaming charges on Mobile phone service.
• Full Mobile Number Portability and work towards One Nation – Free Roaming.
• Efforts Towards ‘Right to Broadband’
• Affordable and reliable Broadband on demand by 2015 and to achieve 175 million broadband connections by the year 2017 and 600 million by the year 2020 at minimum 2 Mbps download speed and making available higher speeds of atleast 100 Mbps on demand.
• To revise the existing broadband download speed of 256 Kbps to 512 Kbps by end of 2012 and subsequently to 2 Mbps by 2015 and higher speeds of atleast 100 Mbps thereafter.
• Mission is to have special coverage of Remote, Rural areas across India.
• Protect consumer interest by promoting informed consent, transparency and accountability in quality of service, tariff, usage etc.
• Optimize transmission of services to consumers irrespective of their devices or locations by Fixed-Mobile Convergence thus making available valuable spectrum for other wireless services.
• Convergence of services will cover voice, data, video, Internet, VAS
•  Cloud Computing, Next Generation Network including IPV6
• De-link licenses issuances & spectrum allocations
• Spectrum to be made available at market valuations
• Seek TRAI recommendation on license framework
• Will allow trading, sharing, pooling of spectrum
• Will enact a separate spectrum act

New Telecom Policy Approved: Roaming charges to go, one-nation-one-number cleared

The Cabinet on Thursday approved a new telecom policy that proposes to abolish roaming charges on mobile phones and allow users to retain the same number across the country. 

The Cabinet approved the National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012, a senior minister told reporters after the meeting of the Cabinet. 

The NTP 2012 aims to provide free roaming to telecom users and allow them to retain the mobile number even outside their circles without having to pay any extra charge. 

At present, users have to pay extra when they receive or make a call in a circle outside their home network, called roaming charges. 

Also mobile number portability is not permitted outside circle. 

The new policy aims to provide on demand broadband for all citizens and increase rural teledensity to 100% by 2020. 

The country overhauled its telecom rules after the once-booming sector was hit by a massive scandal over telecom's licence grants in 2008, which a state auditor estimated to have cost New Delhi as much as $34 billion in lost revenue. 

The new policy, which will separate licences and airwaves and will allow sharing of airwaves among carriers, also seeks to facilitate consolidation in the crowded market. 

Pricing of airwaves is, however, not part of the telecom policy, and will be set through an open auction process. 

Under NTP 2012, it has been proposed to de-link spectrum from licences, reduce number of different licences, give industry liberal mergers and acquisition norms and remove roaming charges burden from consumers. They will also be allowed to retain same number across country. 

Source:- The Economic Times

Mobile Telephone Facilities in Rural Areas

Under the Draft National Telecom Policy 2012, it is proposed to increase rural teledensity from current level of around 37 to 60 by 2017 and 100 by the year 2020. 

A scheme has been launched by Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) to provide subsidy support for setting up and managing 7353 infrastructure sites/towers in 500 districts spread over 27 states for provision of mobile services in the specified rural and remote areas, where there was no existing fixed wireless or mobile coverage. As on 31.01.2012, 7296 towers have been set up under the scheme. The infrastructure so created is being shared by up to three service providers for provision of mobile services. 

Following steps are being taken by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to increase the show base: 


(i) Increase number of franchisees/Retailers. 

(ii) Implementing agreement with postal department to increase rural reach. 

(iii) Availability of products in organized retail stores, malls, neighborhood markets etc. 

(iv) Improving availability of network. 

(v) Speedy redressal of complaints through call centres. 

Steps taken/proposed to be taken by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) to increase the show base: 

(i) MTNL will be increasing its broadband & Global System for Mobile communication (GSM)/3G capacity to cater to the demand for providing futuristic services. 

(ii) Expansion/augmentation of existing 3G network to HSPA+ to provide high speed internet and high quality video and other bandwidth demanding services. 

(iii) MTNL is also expanding 2G/3G RF networks which will further improve network coverage and service experience. 

(iv) Introduction of new technology for decongestion/efficient utilization of radio frequency spectrum. 

(v) MTNL is also bundling its services with data cards and handsets from various vendors. 

(vi) Close monitoring of faults is being maintained. Emphasis has been given on the improvement of the quality of service. 

MTNL operates in Delhi and Mumbai only. BSNL undertakes the installation of towers on a continuous basis, based on techno-commercial consideration. Further BSNL has already has initiated and action for procurement of the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication equipment for future expansion. 

This information was given in Lok Sabha today by Shri Milind Deora, the Minister of State, Communication and Information Technology in response to a question.