state-run telco bsnl partners with japan's softbank, ntt to

64 | VOICE&DATA | SEPTEMBER 2018 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

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State-run telecom firm BSnl has inked a pact with Japan’s Soft-Bankand ntt Communications to roll out 5G and internet of things technology in india, a top official has said.

“We have signed agreement with SoftBank and ntt Commu-nications to roll out 5G and iot products and services in india. Under the agreement, we will look at solution specially for the smart cities,” said anupam Shrivastava, BSnl chairman and managing director.

He said most of the BSnl competitors are still looking at monetising their 4G services and hence leading companies have started looking at the state-run firm for 5G services roll out.

“We have benefitted by lead taken by our minister (manoj Sinha). He has held various meetings at global level on 5G. We capitalised on those opportunities and signed agreement for the next generation technology,” Shrivastava said.

telecom minister Sinha has said that 5G service launch in india will happen at par with other leading nations.

“3G was launch in india after seven years the technology was

State-run telco BSnL partners with japan’s SoftBank, nTT to roll out 5G, IoT services

available in other foreign markets and 4G services after four years lag but 5G will be launched in india in 2020 as soon the standards are freezed by itU,” Shrivastava said.

He said that BSnl is working to finalise test cases where 5G can be used in india.

“We are in advance stages of starting 5G field trials. Government is in agreement to provide us 5G spectrum for trials. We expect to start field trials very soon,” Shrivastava said.

the telecom Regulatory authority of india has recommended auction of about 8,644 mHz of telecom frequencies at an estimated base price of Rs 4.9 lakh crore. the government is yet to finalise details of allocation of spectrum for 5G services.

Under the agreement with SoftBank, BSnl will look at collaborat-ing with the Japanese firm for its satellite constellation which will have around 900 satellites to provide high speed internet services across the globe.

BSnl has signed agreement with nokia and Cisco as well for developing 5G ecosystem.

telecom Secretary aruna Sundararajan said auction of spectrum for 5G services is likely to happen in the later half of 2019.

“Right now, it (5G allocation) is looking to happen in later half of next year,” she told.

the 5G services would offer telecom companies better visibility into market dynamics and potential revenue streams of the next-generation mobile services, Sundararajan said.

as long as monetisation avenues and opportunities are properly identified, rollout would not take long because there is no require-ment for replacing hardware as it was done to upgrade from 3G to 4G services, she noted.

“5G services are all software driven. they don’t have to go and replace the hardware.. So, it can happen much faster,” she said.

However, before the auction, Department of telecommunica-tions wants to provide a one-year timeframe for trials to happen with experimental spectrum, the Secretary said.

Hence, the government intends to give experimental licenses for telcos to develop test beds to evolve a full-fledged eco-system, she added.

on the trial test bed funded by the government, Sundararajan said it was coming up at iit madras along with other iits.

Ericsson’s test bed is already functional, she noted. to a query, Sundararajan said the government is expected to

decide on spectrum allocation for 4G services to public sector firms BSnl and mtnl within the next couple of months.

“the proposals for cabinet approval are under process. it won’t take time.. We will have our cabinet note ready at the earliest..

Spectrum auction for 5G likely to happen in later half of 2019: Telecom Secy

So within the next couple of months we expect a decision by the government,” she said.

it is very important to allocate 4G spectrum for BSnl and mtnl to survive, she added.

in march, the Standing Committee of information technology had asked the Centre to allocate 4G spectrum to BSnl and mtnl at the earliest to help them compete and survive in the market.

BSnl and mtnl operate in 20 and 2 telecom circles, respec-tively.

Both had requested for 5 mhz block of radiowaves in 2100 mhz band in the service area where they operate.

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | SEPTEMBER 2018 | VOICE&DATA | 65

the telecom department has moved the Supreme Court for ap-proval to secure dues worth almost Rs 33,000 crore from all operators toward licence fees and spectrum usage charges, saying existing bank guarantees aren’t enough to cover the “huge public money” at stake. However, telcos fear such a step would impose a higher financial burden on them.

the Department of telecommunications filed two separate but identical petitions on September 13, claiming that fresh bank guarantees for Rs 28.70 crore and Rs 32,655.58 crore are needed from the operators and pleading with the court to ensure that the “government’s interests are secured”.

“…there is huge public money at stake” and even with existing financial bank guarantees and withholding the performance bank guarantee of the licensee companies, it is “not adequate security towards its outstanding assessed annual license fee and SUC dues,” Dot said in the petitions. a decision favouring Dot would mean additional financial stress on operators already reeling under heavy debt amid eroding revenue and profitability, telcos said.

“this will add to the financial burden of the operators if the court decides that more bank guarantees are needed,” said a senior industry executive who did not want to be identified.

DEaLS In SEcTOR May GET hITFor Reliance Communications, a decision favouring Dot could add to its financial liabilities and further delay the sale of its spectrum to Reliance Jio infocomm. the tatas may need to recalculate the liabilities that the group needs to assume while seeking approval to sell tata teleservices ltd’s consumer mobility business to Bharti airtel.

DoT moves Supreme court to seek Rs 33k-cr spectrum dues

Dot has been fighting to recover SUC dues and licence fees for a while, with some Rs 78,000 crore stuck in litigation in a sector burdened with over Rs 7 lakh crore of debt. the court is considering the definition of adjusted gross revenue (aGR) — the revenue derived from licensed services — which forms the basis of calculating annual fees such as SUC and licence fees.

Dot said in its latest petitions that it cannot enforce demands for dues until the apex court passes its final order and that because of this, it “continued for more than a year without any recovery.” “it has now become necessary for the appellant/applicant to ap-proach this Hon. Court to modify the interim order so that the bank guarantees are given or some arrangement is made so that the government interests are secured,” Dot said in the petitions.

the legal battles have delayed mergers and if Dot gets the apex court’s approval, it may impact ongoing deals. RCom, which has sold its fibre network and switching nodes to Jio for Rs 5,000 crore, is stuck in a separate legal tussle with Dot over spectrum dues that has delayed its spectrum sale to Jio. RCom is in a rush to pay off its 39 lenders and pare debt of Rs 46,000 crore, a big part of which will be generated from the sale of spectrum to the mukesh ambani-owned company. the complete deal, including the sale of towers to Jio and land to Canada’s Brookfield, is ex-pected to generate some Rs 18,000 crore for RCom.

tata teleservices has agreed to sell its mobility business to Sunil mittalowned airtel while its enterprise business is expected to be picked up by group company tata Communications. While tata Sons has informed Dot that it will bankroll most of the dues incurred by tata teleservices, any additional amount would add to the burden of the conglomerate trying to exit the telecom sector.

Reliance Jio infocomm has appointed Shyam Prabhakar mardikar as group chief technology officer of mobility, and he will oversee deployment of the company’s 4G networks in the country, said people aware of the matter.

mardikar’s appointment comes in the wake of the exit of Jagbir Singh, who had joined the company before the soft launch of 4G services and quit in June this year. mardikar most recently served Bharti airtel as its chief technology officer for mobile networks for almost two years. He had been with the company since august 2012.

He will be based in mumbai and report to mathew oommen, who is the president of Jio and a member of the board of directors at the mukesh ambani-owned telecom operator.

a query sent to Jio went unanswered, while mardikar could not be reached for comment.

Jio is aggressively expanding its 4G ltE network for coverage

Reliance jio appoints Shyam Mardikar as group cTO of mobile networks

and capacity in india as part of its bitter battle for subscribers with rivals Vodafone idea and Bharti air tel. it is deepening its coverage in existing areas to achieve 99% population coverage in the current financial year and plans to soon start work on 5G technology.

the company currently offers pan-india 4G coverage using 800mHz, 1800mHz and 2300mHz bands. in the april-June quarter, it said, it carried 76% of the total 4G data traffic in the country.

Bharti airtel, on the other hand, brought in Randeep Singh Sekhon to head the networks department as the new chief of technology for its india and South asia operations, replacing Savargaonkar.

Sekhon, who is reporting to airtel CEo Gopal Vittal, earlier worked in various senior leadership roles with telcos in malaysia and indonesia, with his previous role being that of CEo of Hutchi-son 3 indonesia.


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all 198 wards of Bengaluru will get free wireless connectiv-ity to access internet in public places, Deputy Chief minister G Parameshwara announced.

Speaking after launching free wi-fi facility at Govindaraja na-gar ward, the DCm who holds Bengaluru Development portfolio said that the government agencies are working on modalities to introduce the facility across Bengaluru.

in Govindaraja nagar, where free wi-fi facility has been launched on a pilot basis, Reliance Jio is providing internet facil-ity in 3km radius. Citizens can use the public wi-fi by entering their phone number as password. “the city corporation and the information technology department is having talks with various service providers to chalk out strategies for the free wi-fi con-nectivity,” a BBmP official said.

the ambitious plan to provide wi-fi connectivity across Benga-luru was in the backburner for long. lack of clarity on rentals for different types of telecom infrastructure is said to be delaying the public internet service. the Bruhat Bengaluru mahanagara Palike

Bengaluru to get free wifi in six months

was delaying the process of fixing rentals for smaller telecom equipment called access points.

as per the initial pan, citizens will get to use public wifi free for the first 30 minutes. they will have to pay the commercial rates, as fixed by the tRai, for using the service beyond the free minutes. Four companies had expressed interest to provide public wifi hotspots when the project was initially planned.

Under pressure to clamp down on sinister messages, Whatsapp has appointed a grievance officer for india and detailed out the process for users to flag concerns and complaints, including those around fake news.

meeting one of the key demands that india had put on Whatsapp to curb fake messages that triggered mob killings, the Facebook-owned company has updated its website to reflect the appointment of a ‘Grievance officer for india’. the update mentions that users can seek help through the mobile app, send an email or write in to ‘Komal lahiri’, who is based out of the US.

according to lahiri’s linkedin profile, she is senior director, global customer operations and localisation, Whatsapp.

When contacted, a Whatsapp spokesperson declined to com-ment on the matter but pointed to the public FaQ on the company’s website that contains these details.

according to sources, the appointment of the Grievance officer was made at the end of august.

they added that the Grievance officer for india being based in the US is in tune with similar practices by other american tech giants.

according to the Whatsapp website, users can reach out to the company’s support team directly from the app under ‘Settings’ tab and in case they wish to escalate the complaint, they can contact the Grievance officer directly.

a section within FaQs read: “You (users) can contact the Grievance officer with complaints or concerns, including the following: Whatsapp’s terms of Service; and Questions about your account”.

the updated FaQs also detailed out the mechanism for law enforcement officials to reach out to Whatsapp.

whatsapp appoints grievance officer for Indiathe government has been pressing Whatsapp to develop tools

to combat fake or false messages. one of the demands was to name a grievance officer to deal with issues in india.

india is Whatsapp’s biggest market with more than 200 million users. it, in July, limited message forwards to five chats at a time and had also removed the quick forward button placed next to media messages to discourage mass forwarding. it has also intro-duced a ‘forward’ label to help users identify such messages.

the latest appointment is also significant as the Supreme Court, last month, had agreed to examine a petition alleging that What-sapp does not comply with indian laws, including the provision for appointing a grievance officer. the apex court had sought a reply on the matter within four weeks.

With general elections slated for next year in india, the govern-ment is taking a tough stance on use of social media platforms like Facebook, twitter, and Whatsapp for spread of misinformation.

the government had warned Whatsapp that it will treat the mes-saging platform as abettor of rumour propagation and legal conse-quences will follow, if adequate checks are not put in place.

in a meeting held with Whatsapp Head Chris Daniels last month, it minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had asserted that the company will have to find a solution to track origin of messages on its platform, set up a local corporate entity that is subject to indian laws within a defined time-frame as well as appoint a grievance officer.

Whatsapp, which has been slapped with two notices with a third one under consideration, has said it is in the process of establishing a local corporate entity.

it has, however, not accepted government’s demand for trace-ability of messages saying creating such a software will go against the idea of user privacy and end-to-end encryption.


4G ltE is expected to reach over 5.6 billion connections globally in 2022 at which time ltE market share will stand at 60 percent. 5G is expected to accumulate connections starting in late 2018 and by 2022, it is forecast to have almost 400 million connections worldwide, 5G americas said in a statement citing ovum data.

5G americas said that global ltE connections grew by more than one billion connections from June 2017 to June 2018 with a growth rate of 43 percent. With all subscription data provided by ovum, the ltE market share compared to all other mobile wireless technologies achieved 42.3 percent at the end of the second quar-ter of 2018 with a global total of 3.6 billion ltE connections.

“Globally, total mobile connections grew by 6 percent in the year to the second quarter of 2018, while ltE connections grew a stronger 43 percent during this time,” stated Kristin Paulin, Se-nior analyst, ovum. “this substantial ltE foundation leads to the anticipation that soon we will start to see 5G make inroads.”

ovum said that there were 3.6 billion ltE connections out of a total of 8.5 billion total cellular connections worldwide in the year to the second quarter of 2018. ltE global market share forecast to reach 60.3 percent by year-end 2022.

latin america and the Caribbean added 82 million new ltE subscriptions with 52 percent growth year over year from June 2017. at the end of the second quarter, there were nearly 241 million ltE connections in the latin america region on commercial ltE networks across all countries.

LTE to reach 5.6 bn connections; 5G to have 400 mn connections globally by 2022: Report

north america remains the world region with the largest market share for ltE at 77 percent and 376 million ltE connections. new ltE deployments continue and as of mid-September, teleGeog-raphy (GlobalComm) reported 609 ltE commercial networks worldwide, while 267 of those operators have already evolved to ltE-advanced.

“these are exciting days for north america as the early com-mercial realization of 5G technology is just around the corner,” remarked Chris Pearson, President of 5G americas. “at the same time, the U.S. and Canadian service providers are heavily invested in the innovation roadmap of ltE to deliver tremendous throughput speeds and coverage as the foundation for future 5G networks.”

ltE achieved a penetration rate over 103 percent with 376 million connections compared to the population of 365 million in north america. this penetration rate compares to the next two highest regions, oceania, Eastern and Southeastern asia at 88 percent and Western Europe at 66 percent.

in addition to having a significantly higher penetration rate, the U.S. and Canada also have the highest market share for ltE in comparison to all mobile wireless technologies with 77 percent versus oceania, Eastern and Southeastern asia at 64 percent and 48 percent in Western Europe. market share represents the percentage of mobile wireless connections that are ltE technology versus all other mobile technologies.


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netherlands based security software company irdetosaid that it has partnered with Bharti airtel to secure content of its Digital tV services.

irdeto said that it has deployed its “irdeto armor” for android tV and irdeto Cloaked Ca and middleware for airtel set-top-boxes as security solutions.

airtel picks Irdeto to secure content on its Digital TV“operators must balance the needs of consumers while

maintaining full control of security on their platform,” said Doug lowther, CEo, irdeto.

Under the par tnership, both players now plan to work on content protection strategy and ensure optimal viewing experience.

Chinese tech giant Huawei said that the company’s seven nano-metre mobile chipset equipped with artificial intelligence (ai) capabilities, the Kirin 980, will reach indian consumers in the fourth quarter of this year.

Based on taiwan Semiconductor manufacturer Company’s (tSmC) 7nm process, Kirin 980 delivers 20 per cent improved performance and 40 per cent more power efficiency, according to Huawei which surpassed apple to become the second-largest global smartphone seller behind Samsung in the second quarter of this year.

“in addition to improving performance of your device, Kirin 980 has the potential to improve both network connectivity and data download speeds,” said Brody Ji, Senior Product Director, Huawei Consumer Business Group.

“the chip will be available not only in flagship Huawei devices, but also in its mid-range phones,” he said, adding that even some future Honor (a Huawei sub-brand) devices would be powered by Kirin 980.

Kirin 980 is the “world’s first” SoC to sport a modem that sup-ports ltE Category 21 which supports a downlink of 1.4Gbps, Huawei said.

additionally, the Kirin 980 supports carrier aggregation, even across frequency bands, so users are free to choose their mobile operators and still enjoy the same premium connectivity experi-ence, the company added.

the “Hi1103 Wi-Fi” module that comes with Kirin 980 supports a maximum download speed of 1.7Gbps, Huawei said.

the chip supports dual-frequency (l1 and l5) GPS for ultra-precise positioning. this solution works across all scenarios, from urban homes to highways to country side, the company claimed.

“Kirin 980 is the first SoC to be equipped with dual nPU (neural Processing Unit). it has been designed as an all-round powerhouse that not only features outstanding ai capabilities, but also brings cutting-edge raw performance to consumers,” Brody said.

When Huawei first unveiled the system-on-a-chip (SoC) at the consumer electronics show iFa 2018 in Berlin last month, it became the first company to launch a 7nm mobile chip ahead of its competitors.

Huawei Consumer Business Group CEo Richard Yu then con-

huawei to bring Kirin 980 chipset to India this festive quarter

firmed that the first smartphone to be powered by the Kirin 980 chipset will be Huwaei’s mate 20 series which is to be launched in london on october 16.

the tSmC 7nm process technology enables Kirin 980 to pack 6.9 billion transistors within a “1 square cm die size”, up by 1.6 times from the previous generation.

in an octa-core configuration, the CPU in Kirin 980 is comprised of two high-performance Cortex-a76 cores; two high-efficiency Cortex-a76 cores; and two extreme efficiency Cortex-a55 cores, the company said.

Debuting with the Kirin 980 chip, mali-G76 offers 46 per cent greater graphics processing power at 178 per cent improved power efficiency over the previous generation, according to Huawei.

“this chip will significantly improve camera performance of devices and gaming experience for consumers,” Brody said.

mali-G76 utilises ai to intelligently identify gaming workloads and adjust resource allocation for optimal gaming performance.

Kirin 980 supports common ai frameworks such as Caffee, tensorflow and tensorflow lite, and provides a suite of tools that simplifies the difficulty of engineering on-device ai, allowing developers to easily tap into the leading processing power of the dual nPU.


the aam aadmi Party government is exploring dif-ferent models including laying of optical fibres to homes and providing internet vouchers, to execute its much-delayed poll promise of offering free Wi-Fi in the national capital, sources said. a final decision on the way to execute the Wi-Fi project is yet to be taken by the aaP dispensation, they said.

a meeting has been called on where representa-tives of around five telecom companies will give presentation before Delhi PWD minister Satyendar Jain and senior officers.

“We have suggested around three models to the government, which include laying of fibre to home, internet voucher and creating hotspots at public places, to implement free Wi-Fi project. However, no decision has been taken yet,” an official said.

Free Wi-Fi at public places across the city was one of the aaP’s key poll promises before forming the government in Delhi in 2015.

During his budget speech in the Delhi assembly in march, Deputy Chief minister manish Sisodia had said that the Wi-Fi

aaP govt exploring different models to execute free wi-fi facility in Delhi

project, which was earlier with the information and technology (it) department, was given to the PWD to expedite the work.

in its 2018-19 budget, the Delhi government has allocated Rs 100 crore to provide Wi-Fi facility, even though the government did not mention a time-line for the completion of the project.

Vodafone idea wants the telecom depar tment to recalculate the Rs 3,926.34 crore it had paid as spectrum price to get the government’s approval for the merger that created the company.

about two weeks ago, the newly formed company wrote to the Department of telecommunications (Dot), saying it was overcharged, especially for certain circles.

“they brought up a difference of opinion with Dot on indexation charges and prices they paid for spectrum in certain circles like Himachal Pradesh, tamil nadu and Bihar,” said a Dot official, asking not to be named.

indexation here is a calculation done to bring the price to current market value where the airwaves were issued at government-decided price and not through auction. according to rules, a merger or acquisition can be cleared only if the companies liberalise their non-auctioned spectrum by paying the difference between the price paid at the time of airwave allocation and the current market price.

Vodafone idea’s letter also suggested that there were double calculation for spectrum-related dues for Chennai and the rest of tamil nadu. Dot charged a similar amount for both circles. the company said the rate should be based on population and therefore could not be the same.

“We will look into this, but for us to give any further recom-

Vodafone-Idea wants DoT to recalculate fee it paid for spectrum

mendations, we will also have to see calculations that have been done in case of other mergers,” said the Dot official.

Experts said the dispute was likely to head to the telecom tribunal next, and finally reach the Supreme Court to make a final decision.

the amount mentioned in the letter to Dot is part of the Rs 7,249 crore that the department sought as spectrum and related charges from Kumar mangalam Birla-owned idea Cellular and UK-based Vodafone Group in July to approve the deal.

Vodafone india and idea Cellular paid Rs 3,926.34 crore in cash and furnished bank guarantees for Rs 3,322.44 crore, following which Dot cleared the deal. the companies completed their merger on august 31 to create Vodafone idea.

Vodafone india and idea Cellular had in July separately asked the department for a recalculation of the amount. the govern-ment then unofficially communicated to the companies that its calculations were fine.

the two companies paid the amount “under protest” to prevent any further delays to the deal, which had already gone past the June-end closure target.

one-time spectrum charge refers to market price of non-auctioned airwaves less the entry fee paid at the time of spectrum allotment. it has been a bone of contention between Dot and operators, with many matters pending in courts.


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China sought “level playing field, transparent and fair environ-ment” for its enterprises in india while expressing concern over new Delhi’s reported move to exclude Chinese telecom compa-nies Huawei and ZtE from 5G trials.

according to a report in China’s state-run ‘Global times’, the india’s Department of telecommunications (Dot) had barred Huawei technologies and ZtE Corp from the list of companies allowed to work with local companies in 5G technology-based trials due to “security” concerns.

the move follows the US and australia in banning Huawei and ZtE for national security reasons.

However, a top Dot official had said they were in the process of setting up a panel which will decide on areas where 5G technol-ogy can be used.

telecom Secretary aruna Sundararajan told that “companies have come up with preliminary use cases. We are going to set up core group, which will sit with them and look at what are the use cases that make sense to us”.

Sundararajan said Dot had approached Ericsson, nokia, Sam-sung, Cisco and nEC for development of 5G applications and running trials on the suggestion of Stanford University Professor Emeritus arogyaswami J Paulraj - a member of the 5G panel that recently suggested spectrum roadmap for the technology.

“We wrote to Ericsson, nokia, Cisco, Samsung and nEC. Hua-wei has met me and they have said that they are interested. We said if you are interested then send us a proposal. We will see what their proposal is and we may go with them also,” she said.

in Beijing, reacting to media reports, Chinese Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a media briefing, “i have seen rel-evant reports. the Chinese government has always encouraged overseas Chinese enterprises to abide by international rules and local laws while pursuing economic cooperation overseas”.

china asks India to provide ‘level playing field’ for its firms in 5G trials

“We hope the relevant country would offer level playing field and a transparent fair environment for Chinese enterprises,” he said, replying to a question about india’s reported move to exclude Huawei and ZtE from taking part in the 5G trials.

“Economic cooperation between india and China is for mutual benefits and for win-win results. overall, such cooperation between both sides is going on smoothly,” Geng said.

“We’re cooperating actively with local telecom operators and the indian government, and local authorities and partners hold an open attitude toward cooperating with us in meeting demand for 5G network construction,” a Huawei official said in a statement quoted in the report.

the Chinese company is also working normally with the local telecom operators on 5G trials, Huawei added.

in august, the US banned government personnel from using Huawei technologies while australia barred the company from providing equipment to support the country’s new telecommu-nications networks.

Reliance Jio, the 4G telecom operator said that it is the only ser-vice provider in the country to offer eSim activation for prepaid users.

“Jio will exclusively enable the advanced eSim feature on apple’s latest iPhones for both Jio prepaid and postpaid users. Currently Jio is the only service provider in the country to offer eSim activa-tion for prepaid users,” Jio said in a statement.

Both Jio and Bharti airtel are apple’s official eSim telco partners for latest iPhones - iPhone XS and iPhone XS max.

apple, for the first time ever, introduced dual Sim to its iPhone through iPhone XS and iPhone XS max models. the dual Sim capability is offered through a nano-Sim and digital eSim with these latest iPhones.

Reliance jio says only Indian telco to offer iPhone eSIM activation for prepaid users

in india, Jio and airtel came up with eSim activation plans for apple Watch Series 3 last year.


Policy and regulatory measures need to facilitate deployment of emerging technologies and innovative business models for affordable digital infrastructure and services, said Sunil Bharti mittal at the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) in new York.

Bharti Enterprises’ chairman Sunil Bharti mittal who is also honorary chairman of the international Chamber of Commerce (iCC) co-chaired the World Economic Forum (WEF) second annual ‘Sustainable Development impact Summit’

While speaking at a session, mittal shared,”mobilizing investments for SDGs requires unprecedented coordination between public and private institutions. it also requires significant reform to global financial regulation and financial institutions.”

“the global business community has an important role to play in the creation of a financial system aligned with sustainable development. orienting a complex global financial system towards the SDGs has its challenges, but it can be done,” he added.

mittal also moderated a session on the topic “the Changing Face of iCt Regulation” at the broadband commission annual meeting

Policy and regulatory measures need to facilitate deployment of emerging technologies: Sunil Mittal

all telecom equipment used by operators will have to undergo mandatory testing and get certified by authorised agencies in ac-cordance with specified norms from october 1, telecom Secretary aruna Sundarajan has said. She said this when asked whether the indian government was contemplating a cautious approach with regard to procurement of equipment from Chinese companies, as has been done by countries like US and australia. “From oc-tober 1, every piece of equipment used by operators that comes into india must be mandatorily tested under the indian telegraph (amendment) Rules, 2017,” she said in an interview.

Sundararajan had on September 14 said that the Department of telecommunication (Dot) may go with Huawei, a Chinese telecom company, after examining their proposal. Replying to a query, Sundararajan said the indian telegraph (amendment) Rules, which was notified by the indian government last September, mandates equipment-makers to get their products tested and certified from the agency or body authorised by Dot before selling or importing them into india.

the Rules mandates Dot to take punitive action under the licence norms and also seize the equipment, if a telecom operator fails to adhere to them, she added. also, it bars telecom operators from using untested and uncertified equipment. the industry, however, is saying that the move for mandatory local testing would delay network deployments and expansion.

all telecom equipment used by operators will have to undergo mandatory testing

in a letter dated may 29 to Sundararajan, the Cellularoperators association of india (Coai) had asked Dot topostpone the dead-line to at least october 1, 2019. it also claims that the mandatory testing would cripple the telecom ecosystem. Coai represents indian service providers and network vendors such as Huawei, Ericsson and ZtE.

where he talked about the need for an agile framework for an innovative digital ecosystem through flexible light-touch, forward looking, transparent policy and regulatory approach.


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india’s telecom sector has attracted a Foreign Direct investment (FDi) worth $6.2 billion (Rs 43,400 crore) in 2017-18 fiscal, telecom minister manoj Sinha said.

“FDi in the telecom sector has jumped nearly five times in the last 3 years – from $1.3 billion in 2015-16 to $6.2 billion in 2017-18,” Sinha added.

the government has already increased FDi in the telecom space to 100% and the sector is witnessing steadily growth since then.

the provisional statistics released by the Reserve Bank of india (RBi) early this month has, however, indicated india’s communica-tions services segment received $8.8 billion (around Rs 63,000 crore) worth of investment in FY 2018.

Buoyant Sinha said that the country needs massive investment in developing newer technologies, which could be accessible and affordable to the people and at the same time creates productive employment.

the government, according to him, is aiming the commercial rollout of fifth-generation or 5G services by the end of 2020. the newer technology is also expected to bring in potential investment in the country with an array of multinational expressing interest in the enterprise applications and utility services.

the narendra modi-led nDa government is aiming to attract $100 billion worth investment in the country.

it is pertinent to mention that the draft national Digital Com-munications Policy, 2018 aims to attract investment of $100 billion or about Rs.6.5 lakh crore in the digital communications sector, Sinha said.

fDI in telecom sector surges to $6.2 billion in 2017-18: Manoj Sinha

“telecom sector will play an important role in creating those employment opportunities,” he said, adding that the Department of telecommunications (Dot) has taken steps to promote the ease of doing business.

telecom Secretary aruna Sundararajan said that the telecom sector has always been one of the core sectors attracting highest FDi inflows and this overall this trend has been positive for the past two decades.

in 2017, due to heightened industry-wide financial stress, the government had formed an inter-ministerial Group (imG) and has accepted a majority of its recommendations to facilitate Rs 7 lakh crore debt-ridden sector.

telecom operator Bharti airtel is planning to rollout 13000 new mobile sites and 4500km optic fiber to boost high speed data network capacity in Karnataka by march 2019, the company said in a statement.

airtel will also deploy pre-5G massive mimo technol-ogy across major business and residential hubs in the state. the company had recently deployed the solution at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru during the iPl 2018 matches.

“our significant investments in network will further boost the coverage and data speeds delivering a superior user experience for our customers,” said C. Surendran, Chief Executive officer – Karnataka, Bharti airtel.

airtel 4G covers 98% of the state’s population. the telco’s network covers over 39000 towns and villages in the state.

airtel to deploy 13000 mobile sites, 4500 km optic fiber, massive MIMO in Karnataka


apple is entering into a partnership with Salesforce in which the iPhone maker will help Salesforce build the iPhone maker’s features such as its Siri voice assistant deeper into Salesforce’s own mobile apps, which are widely used in the sales and market-ing industries.

in exchange, Salesforce will make software tools so that the big businesses that use its back-end technology to power their own apps can build better products with features specific to iPhones and iPads.

apple and Salesforce both have huge ecosystems of third-party software developers. about 20 million developers make software for apple devices, most of them focused on the consumer, while Salesforce has about 5 million developers who tap into its back-end systems to build business applications - a market that apple has been expanding into through deals with iBm, Cisco Systems and accenture.

the partnership means that a salesperson can use Siri after a customer meeting to update that customer’s record with notes from the meeting, flag a customer service issue for a support team to follow-up on and many other data-entry tasks that can eat up valuable time.

“if you look at enterprise in general, voice has not been used as much as in consumer,” apple CEo tim Cook said in an interview. “We’re going to be able to provide the sales rep instant access to things using your voice instead of clicks and going through different apps. We’re changing the way people work, and that’s always been at the heart of what apple is about - changing things for the better.”

in exchange, Salesforce is building tools so companies that tap into its back-end systems can make better use of apple-specific features like Siri.

apple partners Salesforce to bring Siri to more business apps

at Salesforce’s annual customer conference this week, marriott international will demonstrate a new system that uses Salesforce and apple tools so that hotel guests can turn up the heat, order a sandwich or hail a ride using Siri with an apple HomePod in their hotel room. and at the next marriot the guest stays at, Siri will remember the guest’s preferences - even their favorite sandwich, Salesforce CEo marc Benioff said in an interview.

“i don’t think i’ve met with a single customer in the world that doesn’t want me to help them do more with tim’s products,” Benioff said Cook and apple in the interview.

Salesforce also runs an educational platform called trailhead, where it says one in four people who take courses in how to build business apps with Salesforce’s tools ends up getting a raise or promotion. as part of the deal, apple and Salesforce will add courses on how to develop iPhone and iPad applications.

“these people are learning the tech skills that are elevating their careers,” Benioff said.

the telecom department has put aadhaar-based face authentica-tion on hold pending the Supreme Court judgement on petitions challenging issuance of new mobile connections and re-verification through the use of the unique identity.

the Department of telecom (Dot) in a letter dated September 19, 2018, to the UiDai CEo said that the judgement on petition filed in the apex court challenging aadhaar based e-KYC process is expected to be delivered this month and it may require re-look on the whole e-KYC process for issuance of new mobile con-nections.

“... it has been decided by the depar tment that the instructions for implementation of face authentication in aadhaar based e-KYC (know your customer) process including

Department of Telecom puts aadhaar based face authentication on hold

amendments in consumer application form/database formats may be issued by Dot to tSPs after procurement of final judgement on aadhaar by Hon’ble Supreme Cour t af ter comprehensive re-look on the whole aadhaar based e-KYC process,” the letter said.

the Unique identity authority of india (UiDai) in august had directed all telecom service providers (tSPs) to implement double factor authentication in their system using matching of face of the subscriber as captured in aadhaar from September 15, 2018 onward.

the aadhaar custodian had directed that at least 10 per cent of their total monthly verification transaction should be done using face authentication.

state-run telco bsnl partners with japan's softbank, ntt to

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