Reliance refutes CAG charges on RJio’s spectrum

Reliance Industries Ltd has strongly dismissed the allegations made by the Comptroller & Auditor General of India saying that its telecom subsidiary Reliance Jio has followed rules laid out by the Government from time to time.

A draft report prepared by the CAG has rejected the telecom department’s stand allowing Reliance Jio to offer voice telephony using broadband spectrum against a payment of ₹1,658 crore. The CAG said that had the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) made it clear that voice service was permitted, there would have been more demand for spectrum during the auctions held in 2010.

Replying to a questionnaire sent by Business Line, a Reliance Industries spokesperson said, “The prescribed entry fee for migration to Unified License was ₹15 crore. Therefore Reliance Jio should have been allowed to migrate to UL by payment of this entry fee of ₹15 crore and allowed to provide voice services. But Reliance Jio was made to pay additional fee of ₹1,658 crore for the migration.”

On CAG’s allegations that Infotel Broadband (the company which RIL acquired), with a low net worth, was allowed to acquire expensive spectrum, the Reliance spokesperson said that Infotel Broadband (IBSPL) fulfilled all the eligibility conditions to participate in the auction.

On June 11, 2010, RIL announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire a substantial stake in Infotel for ₹4,800 crore. “These investments were in full compliance with the prevailing guidelines of DoT, the Companies Act and all applicable laws of the country. No lock-in period was prescribed by DoT for the broadband spectrum in the pre-auction guidelines.”

“The auction guidelines were applicable uniformly to all the participants. RIL invested in IBSPL by subscribing to the fresh equity shares at par. The entire investment of RIL was into the company and there was no transfer of shares by any existing shareholders of IBSPL,” RIL said.

Reliance said that the Government has realised full value of the spectrum since all the bidders including IBSPL acquired the spectrum at an auction-determined price.

As per the auction rules, a broadband spectrum holder can provide all the telecom services which are allowed by the respective licence it holds or acquires from time to time. Thus an operator with mobile telephony with broadband spectrum can provide all the telecom services including voice but an Internet licensee could do primarily data services.

When the Unified Licensing regime was implemented, every licence holder, including Internet operators, was permitted to migrate by paying the prescribed fee. The UL regime allows a licensee to provide all services including voice services. Therefore a broadband spectrum holder who migrated to unified licence is allowed to provide all services including voice telephony, the RIL spokesperson said.

“To say that ₹1,658 crore is not appropriate is a travesty of justice. The very sum was paid by the operators in year 2001 to acquire the licence against which they got start-up spectrum of 4.4 MHz. Reliance Jio never got any start-up spectrum against ₹1,658 crore paid as additional fee.”

Source: HBL

Russia’s Yota Devices in talks with Rel Jio, Bharti Airtel & Aircel to provide WiFi dongles and routers

Yota Devices, a Russian vendor of products which support 4G LTE, is betting big on the Indian market and is in talks with operators including Reliance Jio Infocomm, Bharti Airtel and Aircel to provide Wi-Fi dongles and routers.

Pavel Zakharkin, business development director at Yota Devices told ET that the company's talks with Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio were at an advanced stage. Reliance Jio is using Yota's routers and dongles for 4G trials on the 2300 MHz bandwidth (TD-LTE) in the country.

"We hope to close a deal with Reliance Jio for our TD-LTE devices," Zakharkin said, adding that the company's technical team was working with Jio for the testing of its devices on the telecom operator's network which is yet to be launched.

Reliance Jio, which has been doing field trials for 4G services in a limited manner, plans to conduct expanded field trials for its services from August till early 2015, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani recently said at the company's annual general meeting.

The company is expected to launch its highspeed data and voice services on 4G in phases next year, riding a Rs 70,000-crore investment by parent Reliance Industries. "We don't announce vendor tieups. In fact, no vendor can disclose anything to media as there is nondisclosure as part of our contract in all purchases or service contracts," a Reliance Jio spokesperson said in a statement.

"Many vendors come and show their product. That doesn't mean we are buying from them." Bharti Airtel declined to comment while Aircel did not reply to an email seeking response to its talks with Yota Devices.

Yota Devices' TD-LTE enabled Wi-Fi dongle 'Amber', which can connect 11 different devices simultaneously in a home environment, and portable router 'Ruby' are the two products that the company has positioned for the Indian market.

The devices are based on Qualcomm and Altair chipsets, respectively. Zakharkin said the company would ensure the "best pricing" in India, adding that Indian market was similar to Russia's in terms of price sensitiveness. Besides routers and dongles, Yota Devices also plans to launch an upgraded version of its dual screen equipped YotaPhone that it sells in developed countries.

Source: ET

Mobile radiation not harmful, health experts and doctors

A group of health experts and doctors have come together on the same platform to dispel fears of harmful effects of radiation from mobile phones and towers.

As part of an awareness campaign by the Cellular Operators Association of India ( COAI), the experts have assured mobile phone users that radiation does not affect the health of a person.

In a video series which would soon be uploaded on YouTube, Dr Bhavin Jankharia, Mumbai-based eminent radiologist and president of the Indian Radiology and Imaging Association, said, "Mobile tower radiation is inherently a type of radiation that we believe does not produce any kind of significant harm to humans."

He said that the entire issue began when some people made some co-relation between an incidence of cancer and telecom towers without any basis.

Various environmental groups, NGOs and activists in India have voiced their concerns over adverse health affects from Electromagnetic Field (EMF) emissions from antennas on cell towers and mobile phones.

This has led to opposition against setting up of mobile phone towers on buildings by various resident welfare associations in cities.

Among others, a Bollywood actress has also become a part of these protests as she has started a 'reduce EMF radiation' campaign.

"All scientific research has found no health effect," telecom industry body COAI's director general Rajan S Mathews told PTI.

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR)'s chemical sciences professor R V Hosur said, "Non-ionising radiation such as mobile emission causes only local change in temperature depending on the extent of use".

Indian American oncologist Dr Siddhartha Mukherjee, said if there is a link between EMF and cancer then "it must be occurring through a mechanism that lies outside anything that we know about the standard mechanisms of carcinogenesis".

"One would have to invent a novel mechanism of carcinogenesis in order to understand how radiation in that part of the spectrum can cause cancer," said the author of the Pulitzer prize winning book, 'The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer'.

Noted brain-tumour specialist Dr Rakesh Jalali of the Tata Medical Centre said, "The RF (radio frequency) waves used in the mobile phone technology are probably at the lowest end of the electromagnetic spectrum and does not cause any DNA kill".

In an advisory issued in September 2013, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had said that studies so far provide no indication that environmental exposure to radio frequency fields, such as from base stations, increases the risk of cancer or any other disease.

"Scientists have reported other health effects of using mobile phones including changes in brain activity, reaction times and sleep patterns. These effects are minor and have no apparent health significance," it said.

Dr Rajesh Dixit of Tata Medical Centre, who is leading a study on effect of mobile emissions on human health in Mumbai, also agreed saying there is not enough evidence proving mobile phones cause cancer in humans.

Experts claim unborn babies also do not get affected if pregnant women are exposed to radiation.

Professor Michael Repacholi, ex-EMF project co-ordinator for WHO, pointed out that the penetration depth of EMF is only 1-2 mm, so it never gets close to the foetus in any significant amount to cause any damage.

Source: ET

Telecom Dept Working on Policy to Treat Broadband as Basic Need

The Telecom Department is expected to finalise a National Broadband Policy within 100 days that would treat high-speed Internet access a basic right like education and health. “A new broadband policy is being prepared and will be finalised within 100 days,“ an official source said. Under the new policy the government has plans to include broadband among basic necessities like education and health and work towards new legislation of `Right to Broadband', sources said.

 They said it is expected to look at ways of increasing broadband penetration as well as convergence of various technologies and platforms like cable TV , optical fibre, wireless connection through spectrum, VSAT and satellite. At present there are different departments that govern various technologies. For instance, Cable TV comes under the I&B Ministry and Satellite related issues are majorly governed by the Department of Space

Source: TOI

Telecom sector: Hoping for a friendly regime

India’s telecom companies are hoping for clarity in regulatory matters and rationalization of taxes as the new government at the Centre settles down. The telecom industry has often complained about time-consuming procedures and delayed approvals by the department of telecommunications (DoT). New communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has promised to address these issues.

DoT officials became overcautious after the procedures that led to the telecom spectrum scandal prompted criticism from the Comptroller and Auditor General and the courts, culminating in a 2 February 2012 Supreme Court verdict that cancelled 122 telecom licences issued in 2008. The court order said procedures followed in allotting licences and spectrum to nine companies were flawed.

Tax rationalization is another key demand by telecom companies that pay 26% of revenue to the government in licence fees, spectrum usage charges, taxes and other fees. Meanwhile, the heavily capital-intensive sector has to continue investing in new technologies in some parts of the country while they simultaneously roll out older technologies in other parts. India’s telcos had collective debt of Rs.2.4 trillion in 2013, according to a presentation made by Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the main lobby group for GSM operators in the country, to Prasad. On 27 May, lobby group Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry wrote to minister Prasad seeking infrastructure status for telcos, lower regulatory costs, spectrum auctions and encouragement for domestic manufacturing “to reinvigorate the industry and revive investor sentiment”.

A large amount of spectrum is currently lying unused with the government, either because of inadequate efforts to allot it for telecom services, or due to differences between the communications ministry and the defence forces, information and broadcasting ministry and the department of space. The industry wants all available spectrum to be auctioned and put to use immediately. At a meeting in May after he took charge as the new communications minister, Prasad said the government’s main focus would be creating broadband highways, apart from improving service quality and restoring investor confidence.

The government is working on several steps to encourage telecom equipment manufacturing within the country, including deferred excise duty payouts without interest, 10-year tax holidays and a Rs.1,000 crore telecom innovation fund. “We are hopeful that the new government will aid us in helping maintain a long-term clear, stable, predictable, development-oriented and investor-friendly policy regime, which recognizes the long-term nature of the investments and long project maturity requirements of the telecom sector,” said Rajan S. Mathews, director general of COAI. “India accounts for just 11% of the total investments in the Asia-Pacific region compared to China, which accounted for nearly 50% of the investments in the region in 2012-13,” he added.

Source: LiveMint

Reliance Jio to start 4G telecom services in 2015, says chairman

Reliance Jio Infocomm will launch its much-awaited 4G telecom services in 2015 in a phased manner with limited trials currently on, the company's Chairman Mukesh Ambani, said Wednesday.

Expanded trials for testing out its services on the field will begin in August and carry on till early part of 2015, before the launch where initially 5,000 towns and cities and 250,000 villages in India will be covered, Ambani said while addressing shareholders at the annual general meeting of Jio's parent, Reliance Industries.

Ambani said that Jio, a Rs 70,000-crore investment business, will be one of the largest job and wealth creators. He added that the company already directly employed over 10,000 staff, and some 30,000 from partners and vendors.

Another 100,000 people from digital infrastructure vendors to Jio are engaged in laying down the digital back bone, or fibre optic network, country wide.

The acquisition of Network 18 through Independent Media Trust will be an aspect of the digital services play that the company will offer to customer when it goes live, he added.

Jio was widely expected to launch its services in 2014 itself. It has already stitched up deals to share telecom infrastructure, including towers and optic fibre, with companies such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Viom and American Tower Corp, besides setting up its own infrastructure. It is likely to have successfully completed trials on handsets, which can be used for providing voice over LTE on 1800 MHz, and is also talking to other handset makers to have affordable LTE supporting devices in the market at the time of Jio's launch.

Source: ET

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd may start 4G service with about 45,000 towers: Credit Suisse

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd is expected to use between 30,000 and 45,000 mobile towers when it starts offering 4G services in the third or fourth quarter of this financial year, according to Credit Suisse.

"Our recent channel checks suggest that RJio has completed about 11,000 base station installations nationwide and is possibly targeting 30,000-45,000 base stations by launch. We expect this target to be met by December 2014 or March 2015," Credit Suisse analysts Sunil Tirumalai and Chunky Shah said in a recent report.

RJio's rollout of networks is progressing at 2,500-3,000 base stations a month and the pace is accelerating, according to the report. The rollout is well spread out across the country and will continue after the launch, the analysts said.

The company has signed deals with various tower companies through which it has access to about 1,92,500 sites.

Credit Suisse estimates that RJio's network at launch will be three times larger than that of all the companies that started operations in 2009-10 and disrupted India's telecom market with their price wars.

In a report in May, Credit Suisse said almost 60 per cent of RJio's nationwide fibre project appears to have been completed, making its fibre network quite comparable to those of the top telcos in at least the top cities and circles.

In the same report, the Zurich-headquartered financial services firm had said, "With quick strides in the LTE ecosystem and the expected launch of operations by RJio by December 2014, we remain cautious on the telecom sector."

The Credit Suisse analysts said RJio is in talks with Samsung which may offer 4G smartphones starting at about $ 150 per unit and as the launch nears, other lower-end handset makers could get involved.

"Our channel checks suggest that the companies have completed trials on Galaxy S4/S4 mini (including VoLTE), and are working towards having a range of handsets starting at $ 150 by the time of launch," Credit Suisse said in its report in June.

Source:ET