Pakistan is home to some of the world’s most successful investors in emerging markets including Orascom (VimpelCom), Telenor, Etisalat , SingTel, China Mobile, Qatar Telecom, Omantel, etc. It has modern infrastructure of several International Submarine Cables linking Pakistan with the rest of the world. International bandwidth utilization in Pakistan is increasing progressively. Several international terrestrial links have been established with neighboring countries and more are on the cards. It has at least 4 fully redundant, self-healing Nat’l Fiberoptic networks. Fixedline, LDI and Cellular Operators have already geared themselves for NGN Deployments, a fully functional Mobile Number Portability and an effective UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND for unserved markets. Pakistan is ready to benefit from the 3G/4G and LTE technologies for proliferation of broadband services due to a very limited existence of Fixed-line tele-density.

Government of Pakistan has decided to Auction more spectrum for the proliferation of Telecom and ICT services in Pakistan in-line with its recently announced policies of December 2011. The type of Licenses and the salient features are:

Mobile Cellular License (defunct) in 800Mhz band
Mobile Cellular License 3G/4G/LTE in 1900/2100 Mhz band
Salient Features of the 800 Mhz License Auction
— Technology Neutral Mobile Cellular License/ Spectrum for the remaining period of approximate 8 years
— Existing License against an available spectrum of 7.38 + 7.38 Mhz block
— Auction through ‘Multiple Round Open Outcry Method’
— Base Price (BP) = USD 155 Million
— Earnest Money = USD 23.25 Million (15% of BP)
— Successful bidder allowed to participate in Mobile Cellular 3G/4G/LTE License(s)/ Spectrum auction
Salient Features of the 3G/4G/LTE 1900/2100 Mhz License/Spectrum Auction.
— Auction through Multiple Round Open Outcry Method
— 3 technology neutral Mobile Cellular License/ Spectrum; 9.8 + 9.8 Mhz per block
— Base Price (BP) = USD 210 Million
— Earnest Money = USD 31.5 Million (15% of BP)
— A new entrant who has been determined as a successful bidder as a result of March 2012
Auction for Mobile Cellular License (defunct) shall be eligible to participate.
— Existing Cellular operators, are eligible to participate
— Successful Bidders will be offered spectrum for 15 years
— Existing Licenses shall be modified accordingly
— Existing Mobile Cellular License(s) shall be renewed on expiry of its existing term for the remaining duration of assigned spectrum
— All new prospective entrants eligible to bid and agree to start commercial operations after March 2013 may also participate in the auction.
— New License template is available in the IM
— Issued for 15 Years
— Renewable for another term on terms & conditions, as per GoP Policy

Prospective applicants, especially new players, can familiarize themselves with the telecom regulatory, institutional framework and encouraged to visit: www.pta.gov.pk 

All the relevant documents including the Information Memorandum for this auction are placed on PTA's website.

South Korea’s largest mobile network operator in terms of subscribers, SK Telecom (SKT), has said that it has witnessed an increased demand for its fourth-generation services, the Korea Times reports. With SKT having inaugurated commercial Long Term Evolution-based (LTE-based) services in July 2011, company spokesperson Kim Ji-won noted: ‘We don’t have any big questions that 4G-based LTE will become the dominant competitive technology in the mobile industry by the end of 2012.’ Such is the confidence in the technology that the cellco has revealed that it now expects to complete its nationwide LTE rollout by April 2012, eight months ahead of its previously announced schedule. Such expansion is also expected to drive subscriptions further, with one unnamed SKT representative cited as saying: ‘When the LTE network is established in 84 cities around the country, subscription will grow explosively.’ SKT had previously indicated that it aimed to have signed up 500,000 customers to its LTE offerings by end-2011, and it is thought likely that it will achieve this target; SKT currently has around 260,000 LTE subscribers, and one out of three of its new subscribers are opting for 4G tariffs, accounting for around 15,000 new LTE customers every day.

See Press Release
Source: Telegeography

Indian telco says it will work with authorities to allay any concerns. India's Directorate of Enforcement has begun a probe into suspected foreign exchange violations by Bharti Airtel Ltd., the country's federal junior finance minister said Tuesday. The Enforcement Directorate, a unit of the federal finance ministry, investigates violations of foreign exchange laws and money laundering. Namo Narain Meena also told lawmakers the country's markets regulator--the Securities and Exchange Board of India--has received complaints over an alleged increase in share holding by its founders to 67.15% from 60.91% in the company between June 2007 and September 2008, without extending an open offer to public shareholders.

See Press Release 
Source: TotalTelecom

The Philippine telecoms regulator the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is again considering proposals to reduce fees for mobile services in the country by lowering interconnection charges for voice calls and SMS messages sent between rival networks. It is understood the regulator has published two draft decisions on the matter – akin to previous measures floated in 2008 and 2009 – and is launching a public hearing on the plan, timed to take place before any decision is made on PLDT’s plan to acquire a controlling stake in Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc (Digitel). In a statement released yesterday, the NTC said: ‘The country’s 85 million cellphone subscribers stand to gain from the … thrust of reducing interconnection charges on voice calls and short messaging service.’

See Press Release
Source: Telegeography

India's mobile network operators may be allowed to lease their unused radio spectrum to other networks under proposals being considered by the government. However, as the 2G networks did not pay for their spectrum, which is allocated as licenses are awarded, then they should not be allowed to sell the radio spectrum. Many of the incumbent networks are struggling to cope with demand as customer bases exceed their spectrum capacity, while some newer networks sit on unused spectrum after they failed to sign up customers as fast as expected.

See Press Release
Source: Celluar-news

Vietnam's mobile phone networks, and handset retailers are complaining about a new law that restricts handset imports to just three seaports, in HCM City, Da Nang and Hai Phong. Currently, many of the higher value smartphones are shipped via air-freight and with minimal paperwork needed to clear customs, but the new regulations will also impose additional paperwork requirements. Officially, the restrictions are to cut down on phone smuggling, but local retailers point out that most smuggling is across the land borders and do not go through the government controlled ports. Doan Thanh Nhan, senior executive of Viettel Trade Import-Export Company told the VietNamNet news that the increased bureaucracy would particularly hit sales of Nokia and Apple smartphones. The new regulations are expected to transform a one week order-to-delivery timeframe into something closer to a month, not only delaying the sale of fashionable smartphones, but also causing the phone companies to have to increase their stock holdings to absorb potential delays.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular-News

Malaysian WiMAX network, Packet One Networks (P1) has said that it is in "dire need" of additional radio spectrum to continue to manage its subscriber growth, and has asked the regulator to grant it 30Mhz of spectrum in the 2.3Ghz bands. The company already has a 30Mhz block in that band and is one of nine networks due to be allocated a 20Mhz block in the 2.6Ghz band. "The challenge is really roll-out as, for now, its network faces congestion and this deteriorates the Wimax user experience. Any measure taken to address the congestion would be seen as temporary,'' an unnamed source told The Star newspaper, adding that what the company needed was a permanent solution, which was more bandwidth.

See Press Release 
Source: Cellular-News

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is reportedly considering the cancellation of just 15 mobile telephony licences for failure to meet network rollout requirements, compared to the more than 60 suggested in November 2010 by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India’s Economic Times reports. According to the report, two unnamed DoT officials have claimed that the TRAI’s method of assessing network rollout was flawed, and it is understood that the DoT will send a communication to it in the next few days making this assertion.

See Press Release 
Source: Total TeleGeography

The government of Bangladesh has decided to ask the country’s telecoms regulator to reissue licences to two of the five fixed-wireless operators which had their operations closed down in March 2010 for alleged involvement in illegal VoIP business, the Financial Express reports. The communications ministry on Thursday issued a letter to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) requesting that PSTN operating licences be reissued to RanksTel and National TeleCom (NationalPhone), while sources quoted by the Bangladeshi paper said that the remaining three telcos – PeoplesTel, Dhaka Phone and WorldTel – would also get permission to resume their operations ‘in phases.’

See Press Release
Source: Total TeleGeography

Acquisition clears final hurdle a week after Huawei drops intellectual property lawsuit.Chinese regulators have approved Nokia Siemens Networks' planned acquisition of most of Motorola Solutions Inc.'s network-equipment assets, the two companies said Thursday, clearing the path for the deal to close next week. Nokia Siemens Networks, the joint venture between Finland's Nokia Corp. and Germany's Siemens AG, agreed to buy the bulk of Motorola's network-equipment business for $1.2 billion in July last year, but the deal was awaiting approval from China's Ministry of Commerce, which has the authority to review foreign mergers on antitrust grounds.

The sale is a key component of Motorola's restructuring, generating much-needed cash after the company split into two parts: Motorola Solutions, which sells public safety gear; and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., which sells mobile phones and set-top boxes.

See Press Release 
Source: Total Telecom

Bangladesh's government has agreed to revise the controversial plans to charge for radio spectrum and keep them at a "rational level". The proposed charges had been widely condemned as too high, and penalizing the larger networks by charging them proportionately higher rates than the smaller operators. Telecoms Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju told reporters that the guideline drafted by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission would be revised. "The radio spectrum price as well as other charges would be determined after another meeting with the finance ministry," he said. "Fees will be reconsidered and kept at rational level."

See Press Release 
Source: Cellular-News

New policy to allow industry consolidation provided the number of players in any single telecom circle does not fall below six. India will consider easing rules on mergers and acquisitions in the telecommunications sector as part of a new policy that could trigger a wave of consolidation in an industry hit by stiff competition.

The rules could be relaxed provided there are at least six players after any deal in a specific service area, Communications Minister Kapil Sibal said Monday. He was speaking to reporters on the broad contours of the new national telecom policy that is expected by the end of 2011. The new policy will replace the one formulated in 1999.

See Press Release 
Source: Total Telecom

Bangladesh's mobile networks are protesting against proposals by the telecoms regulator to not only raise the radio spectrum fee they pay, but also to set the fee based less on the amount of spectrum they have than their respective customer bases. Different spectrum charges have been imposed on the operators in line with their subscriber bases, an official of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) told the Daily Star newspaper. "That's why per MHz spectrum within the same band is different."

Although operators with higher customer bases often pay more due to their needing more radio spectrum, it is almost unheard of for them to be charged a higher per-Mhz fee as well.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular-news

Indian security agencies are not satisfied with a solution offered by Research In Motion (RIM.TO) for accessing data on its BlackBerry Messenger services, junior telecoms minister Sachin Pilot told parliament on Wednesday. RIM gave India access to its consumer services including the Messenger services in January, after Indian authorities raised security concerns, but said it could not allow monitoring of its enterprise email.

See Press Release
Source: Reuters

India's telecoms regulator said on Wednesday 3.8 million mobile subscribers have opted for mobile number portability (MNP) as of end-February, after the launch of the facility allowing users to retain their mobile numbers even if they switch carriers. MNP was introduced in a northern state in late November and was expanded nationwide from Jan. 20. With 771 million mobile subscribers as of January, India is the world's second-biggest market for mobile services and with monthly additions averaging 19 million in the past one year, it is the world's fastest growing market. The market of 15 mobile carriers is, however, fiercely competitive, with the firms operating under wafer-thin margins.

See Press Release
Source: Reuters

The chairman of the Philippines’ Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), Ivan John E Uy, has said that the government is considering options to implement a compulsory registration scheme for mobile SIM cards to address ‘security concerns’ in the country. The official points to similar schemes in place in a number of other countries, but notes that it would be a costly exercise. Uy, who is reputed to be an expert on cyber crime, is quoted as saying that the non-registration of SIM cards is causing a headache to many people. ‘It’s allegedly used by criminal elements in their illegal activities,’ Uy said. The regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission, originally proposed SIM registration back in 2000, when the country only had two million cellular phone subscribers.

See Press Release 
Source: Telegeography

India's Department of Telecom has reversed an earlier ban on the private mobile network operators offering 3G video calling services - but said that the ban will be reintroduced later this year if changes are not made. The operators will now be required to install a "suitable monitoring mechanism" by the end of July that would allow the security services to monitor video calls.

The operators were barred from offering 3G video calls last month after the security services complained that live monitoring of video calls has not been installed. For their part, the operators noted that it was incredibly difficult to offer live monitoring, as opposed to supplying recordings of the call once it had finished.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular-News

Responding to pressure from Indonesia's government, Research In Motion has decided to filter pornographic internet content for BlackBerry users in that country. RIM “is fully committed to working with Indonesia's carriers to put in place a prompt, compliant filtering solution for BlackBerry subscribers in Indonesia as soon as possible,” the Waterloo, Ontario-based company said in a Jan. 10 statement.

This marks the first time that RIM has applied internet filtering in any country, and the move came after Indonesian Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring threatened to shut down the BlackBerry browsing service. It is estimated that RIM has approximately two million users in Indonesia, and analysts report that the market represents one of the fastest growing for the BlackBerry.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular News

National regulator Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) says new telecoms operators wishing to set up shop in the country will not be able to offer 3G mobile services, as it lacks spectrum bandwidth as all available frequencies are currently occupied by Nepal Telecom (Nepal Doorsanchar Company Limited, or NT) and Spice Nepal Private Ltd (Ncell). Speaking at the latest meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), NTA chairman Bhesraj Kandel confirmed that the only way for operators to get 3G spectrum would be if the existing spectrum was reallocated.

See Press Release
Source: Telegeography

The Thai Cabinet  approved a decisoon by state-owned CAT Telecom to cancel a plan to buy 100% of its Bangkok-based ‘Hutch’ branded CDMA mobile joint venture from partner Hutchinson Telecommunications International. The cancellation of the takeover of Hutchison CAT Wireless Multimedia (HCWM), currently 75% owned by HTI and 25% by CAT, could help clear the way for  True Move to complete a proposed purchase of HCWM.

See Article

Source: TeleGeography

Indian 3G network operators, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices are appealing against an order from the Department of Telecoms (DoT) to suspend their video calling services. The two networks argue that the order - related to state security - is discriminatory as the two state-owned networks, MTNL and BSNL are still permitted to provide video calls. The DoT order requires that the private operators suspend the service until they are able to provide live monitoring of the video calls. Bharti Airtel is also reported to have received the same order blocking it from launching video services in the future.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular-news

A government-appointed panel in Japan, set up to oversee plans to roll out fibre-optic broadband access to all homes by 2015, has said it will not force the incumbent, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT), to spin off the division responsibility for fibre infrastructure. The Nikkei daily reports that although the fibre-optic networks are primarily owned by the telco’s regional units NTT East Corp and NTT West Corp, rivals such as Softbank Corp are calling for government intervention arguing that NTT’s dominance in the sector makes for an unfair playing field.

See Press Release
Source: Telegeography

Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) says that it has been awarded radio spectrum for LTE services in Armenia. VivaCell-MTS, a majority-owned subsidiary of MTS, is the first mobile operator to have been allocated frequencies for the deployment of a LTE network from Public Services Regulatory Commission of the Republic of Armenia. In accordance with the regulator's decision VivaCell-MTS has an obligation to launch the LTE network into commercial operation before March 2011.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular-news

After USD29 million bid, Mozambique’s Instituto Nacional das Comunicacoes (INCM) has selected Movitel, a unit of Vietnamese cellco Viettel, as its third mobile phone operator, the country’s head of telecoms regulation has confirmed. Movitel tabled a bid worth USD29 million for the licence, USD4 million less than the USD33 million bid offered by its rival UNI-Telecom. Announcing the decision, Da Silva stressed that the tender process was weighted towards technical (70%) rather than financial considerations (30%). Portugal Telecom’s TMN unit brought up the rear, with a bid of USD25 million.

See Press Release
Source: TeleGeography

China is to start testing Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in two cities later this month, local media has reported, citing a document released by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The trials of the number portability service will take place in the cities of Tianjin and Hainan. The duration of the trials, or any subsequent expansion is not currently known. The trials are complicated by some local restrictions. In Hainan, while China Mobile 3G subscribers can switch to the other two mobile networks, their subscribers cannot switch over to China Mobile. In Tianjin, subscribers can switch between all three networks but not to C

See Press Release
Source: Cellular-News

India's telecoms regulator, TRAI has announced a consultation on requiring the network operators to block stolen mobile phones by registering their IMEI serial numbers. In 2004, TRAI had initiated a preliminary consultation process on the issue. However, at that time, a number of service providers were not having the capability to track/block the handset in their network. Therefore, the matter was not proceeded further, until now. The main change is that in the previous attempt, not all the networks were logging the IMEI serial numbers when accepting calls on their networks, and a large number of, mainly Chinese, handsets actually lacked a serial number. A change was ordered at the end of 2008 requiring that the networks retain IMEI logs, and that handsets without a valid serial number be blocked from the networks.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular-news

India will implement mobile number portability, which will allow users to switch service providers while retaining their phone number, on Nov. 25. The launch was delayed thrice because some telecom operators weren't prepared, but the "networks are now technically ready," a government statement said late Sunday. The service will be launched in Haryana state on Nov. 25, and across the country in phases after that.

See Press Release
Source: Total Telecom

In issuing the variation determination, which serves to sunset all previous determinations on charges relating to number portability, the Telecommunications Authority would like to reiterate in this Statement that as one of the fundamental principles underlining the UCL Regime, fixed and mobile carriers as holders of the UCL are obliged under their licences to facilitate number portability at their own expenses.

See attached document
Source: OFTA

India's Home Ministry has issued instructions to the mobile network operators instructing them to store all text messages for six months. The networks typically store text messages for just a few days, and the move is expected to sharply increase costs as the networks invest in data centres to archive the old messages. Indians send between 130 and 150 billion SMSes, or text messages, a month. Currently, the operators are only required to archive text messages for specific phone numbers under instruction from the security agencies. The operators have warned that forcing them to archive all text messages from all senders will raise costs, and these will have to be passed onto the consumer. There are also concerns that the move could be expanded to include voice calls.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular news

Cambodian internet service providers who have been granted WiMAX licenses are still waiting for the regulator to resolve a spectrum dispute over a year after their licenses were granted. Although the ISPs were granted licenses in the 2.5GHz to 2.7 GHz frequency range, the same spectrum was also licensed to Star Digital TV. Sok Channda, CEO of Cambodia Data Communications, parent company to both Mekong Net and Angkor Net ISP, told the Phnom Penh Post it was still not cleared to operate WiMAX networks, despite meeting with the Ministry on several occasions. She put the cost of the delays at around US$1 million so far.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular-news

Region overtakes Europe in terms of mobile connections; Wireless Intelligence expects global mobile users to hit 6 billion by first half of 2012. Latin America is now the world's second largest mobile market behind Asia-Pacific after net subscriber additions of nearly 15 million during the second quarter of 2010 saw the region overtake Western Europe. According to new figures published on Friday by Wireless Intelligence, mobile connections across Latin America reached a total of 530 million in Q2, while in Western Europe the number of connections declined sequentially to 515 million from 520 million. "In recent quarters, Latin American mobile operators have increased their marketing and technological investments, which have had a positive impact on connections growth," said Joss Gillet, senior analyst at Wireless Intelligence, in a research note.

See Press Release
Source: Total telecom

The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone has granted India's government manual access to its Messenger service and has promised automated access by January 1, enabling authorities to track such messages in real time, the country's top interior ministry official said on Friday. India, one of the world's fastest growing mobile telephone markets, also wants access to encrypted email traffic sent via Research In Motion's enterprise servers. The BlackBerry maker says its system is designed so that only the sponsoring business or organization has the technical capability to grant such access. India, among several countries to express concerns BlackBerry services could be used to stir political or social instability, has threatened RIM with a ban if denied access to the data.

See Press Release
Source: Reuters

India's delayed launch on Mobile Number Portability (MNP) should finally start across the entire country at the start of November, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman, Dr J. S. Sarma, has announced. "I don't anticipate any further delay in implementing the facility," Dr Sarma told The Hindu Business Line on the sidelines of an open house convened by TRAI on inter-operability of DTH Set Top Boxes (STBs). The deployment of the MNP service was due to be launched in phases across the country, but repeated delays resulted in the regulator changing the plan in favour of a single nationwide launch at once. The DoT guidelines created geographical division of the country into two Number Portability Zones, each consisting of 11 licensed service areas. Subsequently, one operator in each zone was selected. Syniverse Technologies was granted licence for operating in Northern and Western India and MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions was granted licence for Eastern and Southern India.

See Press Release
Source: cellular-news

Delay in 3G licensing process hits investor confidence in Thailand. Thailand's telecoms regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission, Friday filed an appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court, seeking to overturn an injunction against its planned auction of third-generation mobile licenses. The move comes after the Central Administrative Court late Thursday issued an injunction against the auction, scheduled to kick off on Monday, after state-owned CAT Telecom alleged the NTC has no authority to grant the 2.1 gigahertz frequency spectrum to successful bidders. It also argued that parts of the regulations related to the licensing will create "unfair" competition and cause state agencies to lose revenue. The spectrum is to facilitate the launch of 3G technology in the country. State-owned operators have challenged the legitimacy of the NTC to oversee industry issues related to the technology pending the commissioning of a new regulator.

See Press Release
Source: Total telecom

India’s Supreme Court issued a notice to the telecommunication minister asking him to respond to claims that the issuing mobile telephony concessions in 2008 cost the government some INR700 billion (USD15.1 billion). The minister argued that he acted in the public interest, helping to bring down the cost of mobile services. The Supreme Court is hearing a public interest litigation which has called for the judicial body to monitor an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) related to the award of 2G spectrum licences in 2008.

See article
Source: TeleGeography

The government of Russia voted against amendments to the Law on Communications on regulation of mobile tariffs of biggest cellcos MegaFon, MTS and Vimpelcom. It discussed a draft amendment which proposed designating these entreprises as having significant market power.

See article
Source: TeleGeography

Telcordia says that it has been selected by a consortium of the five mobile operators in Thailand, to provide both mobile number portability services and a number lookup service. The five companies have set up a joint venture company - Clearing House for Number Portability - to manage the MNP services
"The introduction of number portability will have a major impact on communications services in Thailand and help us continue to have one of the most advanced mobile infrastructures in the region," said Mr. Premon Pinskul, Chairman of the Clearing House for Number Portability "We are excited to be working with Telcordia to bring their vast global experience to this market."

See Press Release 
Source: Cellular News

The following mobile network operators (MNOs) have published performance pledges for their mobile broadband services. Consumers may access the websites of these MNOs to obtain the information via the following links: CSL Limited Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT) Limited Hutchison Telephone Company Limited SmarTone Mobile Communications Limited The performance pledges do not represent service “guarantees” of the MNOs. They are intended to give consumers an indication of the normal service quality level of the MNOs concerned. Actual performance statistics of the MNOs against the pledges will be published by the MNOs at their respective websites within one month after the end of each quarter. The first batch of performance statistics shall be available before January 2011.

See Press Release 
Source: OFTA - Hong Kong Office of the Telecommunications Authority

The Pre-Qualification Exercise (PQE) for Singapore's Next Generation Interactive Multimedia Applications and Services (NIMS) Project closed on 27 August 2010, at 4pm. The list of companies successfully pre-qualified is available. Project NIMS is a joint initiative by IDA and MDA to develop a strategy to build up capabilities, infrastructure and the industry ecosystem in the area of interactive multimedia application and services. IDA and MDA will be conducting an Industry Dialogue (ID) to seek views from the industry on the following: Share IDA's and MDA's view on the current interactive multimedia services ecosystem and seek industry views on whether and/or how the ecosystem will evolve in the mid term to achieve the NIMS vision; Understand the potential barriers of entry for successful commercial deployment of NIMS in Singapore; Develop an approach to catalyse the industry in the development of NIMS; and, Establish the need for a NIMS infrastructure provider to provide wholesale access for other retail services providers to deliver NIMS.

See website page
Source : IDA

Thailand’s Administrative Court has rejected a lawsuit filed by an employee of state-run telco TOT – the country’s sole 2100MHz UMTS licence holder – which challenged the authority of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to issue 3G licences to privately-owned operators in a planned auction scheduled to start in late September, the Bangkok Post writes. The suit, filed by Pornchai Meemark, formerly a union leader for TOT, argued that under previously issued laws and regulations, the award of new 3G licences is not allowed until a long-delayed plan to form a combined communications/media regulator – the National Broadcasting & Telecommunications Commission – is implemented.

See Press Release
Source: TeleGeopgraphy

­In India, talks to consider restricting BlackBerry services have ended without a decision. Thursday's meeting between officials of the Interior Ministry, security agencies and the state-run telecom provider was held after the government expressed concerns about not being able to monitor data sent via e-mail or messaging on the popular BlackBerry mobile device.

Officials say Thursday's meeting was inconclusive. India wants the Canadian company that makes the phone, Research in Motion, to give it access to encrypted data transmitted via the handset. The government is worried that BlackBerry services can be used by terrorist organizations because security agencies cannot intercept the communication.

See Press Release

Source: Cellular News

India's Department of Telecommunications said Wednesday that from Sept. 1 it would permit telecom companies to launch services only if they are ready with mobile number portability, or MNP, technology on their networks.
Number portability allows cell phone users to change their service providers while retaining the phone numbers. The launch of the service has been delayed thrice as some telecom operators' weren't ready with their networks for such a service. The government has now set Oct. 31 as the date for rolling out the service.
"Any licensee to whom permission for commercial launch of service has been granted, has also to be MNP-compliant along with all service providers," a notice on the department's website showed.

See Press Release
Source: Total Telecom

 Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Celluler Mobile Operators (CMOs) of Pakistan have signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) on Infrastructure Sharing. MoUs will be valid for an initial term of three (3) years and may be extended with mutual consent of the parties, upon expiration of the initial term. The MoUs signed by all 5 mobile operators aimed at revving up the current pace of Infrastructure Sharing amongst Cellular Mobile and WLL operators in the country and to increase the overall industry Tenancy Ratio to a reasonable mark.

See Press Release

Source: PTA

South Korea, Netherlands, Hong Kong Take Top Spots in Strategy Analytics' Broadband Composite Index (BCI)
The United States still trails much of the world in broadband development, ranking 23rd on the list of the top 57 countries, according to rankings released this week by analyst firm Strategy Analytics. South Korea holds on to the title of the world’s most advanced broadband market. Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Lithuania, and Japan round out the top five slots.

The rankings are the result of a new broadband measurement tool just launched by Strategy Analytics. The "Broadband Composite Index" (BCI) examines and scores the broadband development of fifty-seven individual countries in five categories, including household penetration, speed, affordability, value for money, and urbanicity. The resulting score provides a more balanced and robust view of broadband development, according to the firm.

See Press Release (1), (2)

Source: Information Policy , Strategy Analytics

As India prepares to adopt new regulations designed to thwart spying and sabotage, mobile phone operators say this could squeeze their profits and accelerate consolidation in the industry. The rules would require operators in India to have foreign equipment they purchase inspected by third-party laboratories in the United States, Canada or Israel for the presence of spyware or “malware”. India is concerned about spying particularly from China and Pakistan.

See article
Source: The New York Times

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone  announced its intention to acquire a South African Dimension Data Holdings PLC for  $3.2 billions. The  acquisition is regarded as a part of its strategy for global expansion.The company expects to complete the acquisition by the end of October 2010. NTT will pay 120 pence for every share of Dimension Data.

See article

Source: CRWE Newswire

Thai newspaper The Nation reports that a senate committee has asked the country’s regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), to increase the starting bid price for the 3G licences due to be auctioned later in the year. Three next generation concessions will be on offer in September, and the committee has asked for the starting bid price to be THB30 billion (USD913 million) rather than the THB12.8 billion specified by the watchdog. NTC commissioner Natee Sukonrat said the regulator is unlikely to change the reserve again; the price has already gone up once from the THB10 billion given in the original draft. All three licences will be valid for 15 years and will be for 15MHz of spectrum. The licensees will have to reach at least 50% population coverage within two years, although if they achieve 80% within that time they will be allowed to defer the final instalment payment by a year.

See Press Release
Source: TeleGeography

According to a study report released by the Asia Pacific Carriers’ Coalition (APCC) on 14 June 2010, Hong Kong provides the most economical local broadband access services in the Asia Pacific region. The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) welcomes the findings of the APCC Study, which affirm the position of Hong Kong as the premier telecommunications hub in the region. The APCC commissioned the consultant TRPC to conduct the local access price benchmarking study for the Asia Pacific region in 2009. The Study compares the prices of local leased lines, Ethernet access facilities and DSL respectively in 14 economies, including Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

See Press Release
Source: OFTA

A draft decree allowing foreign investors to hold up to 30% of local telecoms companies will be submitted to the Vietnamese government. At present, foreign companies are only allowed to enter the telecoms market via business cooperation contracts, which sanction overseas operators to invest in a state-run enterprise and receive a share of its profits for between five and 15 years, but which leaves control with the state.

See Article
Source:TeteGeography

The  National Communications Commission (NCC) has reacted positively to the news that Taiwan's WiMAX operators intend to convert to Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. 4G licensing will take place in 2014 at the earliest. However, no decisions have yet been made with regard to spectrum planning or the number of 4G licences. Four broadband operators – Global Mobile, Tatung Telecom, FarEasTone (FET) and VMAX – were awarded technology-neutral licences and the NCC has indicated that the quartet may apply to alter their operational plans in order to adopt different mobile technologies – including LTE.

See Article

Source: TeleGeography

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has published a ‘final’ date of 30 August 2010 for  auction of 2100MHz 3G mobile licences. The NTC’s third ‘3G Information Memorandum’ states that a maximum of three 15-year licences including 2x15MHz of spectrum  will be bid on. Licences are due to be issued in September. Winners will be liable for an annual licence fee of 2% of revenues and a Universal Service Obligation of 4%, and must commit to cover 50% of the population.

See Article

Source: TeleGeography

Vietnamese  operator EVN Telecom has  launched its 3G network, being the fourth mobile network operator in the country to provide the service. EVN has so far invested VND2 trillion (USD104 million) in the installation of  2,500 base transceiver stations (BTS) covering 46% of the population. . EVN is hoping to sign up one million 3G subscribers within one year of launch. Vinaphone was the first to launch third-generation services, followed by MobiFone and Viettel. All four were awarded their 3G licences by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) in  2009.

See article

Source: TeleGeography

Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has awarded local telecoms operator GTel a licence allowing it to deploy a network for the provision of fixed telephony services.  GTel,  owned by Vietnamese state-owned vehicles Global Telecommunications Corporation (51%) and GTEL TSC (9%), and Russian mobile group Vimpelcom (40%), already provides wireless services in Vietnam. GTel has become the eighth licensed fixed line operator in Vietnam.

See article
Source: TeleGeography

The Authority’s conclusion is that there  was a substantive breach of section 7M of the Ordinance in nature and with significant impact on the consumers.    Taking  all factors into account, the Authority is of the opinion that in this case of a first financial penalty for CSL, the penalty which is proportionate and reasonable in relation to the conduct concerned is $130,000.
Source: OFTA

As India's 3G license auction entered its second week, the bidding finished Monday evening with a single license to cover the whole country costing Rs. 60.67 billion (US$1.36 billion). There have now been 46 rounds of bidding over eight days. Demand for the licenses seemed to slow slightly after a surge at the end of last week, with most circles showing almost as many bids as there were available licenses. However, activity level still hovers around the 80% mark with most of the focus on the Metro and A Circles. Delhi retained its position as the most desired circle, with bids ending at Rs 6.91 billion, and Mumbai coming second at Rs 6.36 billion per license.

See Press Release
Source: cellular-news

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) tonight (4 March 2010) mounted an enforcement operation against the suspected use of unlicensed radio transmitter for broadcasting at 101 MHz.

"Under the authority of a court warrant, OFTA officers entered the premises at Kwun Tong and seized one radio transmitter set. During the operation, one person was requested to assist further investigation," a spokesperson of OFTA said.

See Press Release
Source: Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA)

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is contemplating to come up with a consultation paper on IMT-Advanced (4G) Mobile wireless broadband services. International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced (IMT-Advanced) systems are mobile systems which include the new capabilities of IMT that go beyond those of IMT-2000. In other words, IMT-Advanced (or 4G) will see a progression beyond third-'generation (3G) technology. The new 4G networks will allow users to stream mobile multimedia, such as TV broadcasts and online games, with speeds up to 10 times than that of third-generation (3G) networks. Such systems provide access to a wide range of telecommunication services supported by mobile and fixed networks that are increasingly accessed using hand held devices.

See Press Release
Source: TRAI India

From today, all Wireless@SG users will be able to enjoy faster and easier access at most Wireless@SG hotspots around the country. The free Wireless@SG service, with its access speeds doubled from 512 kbps to 1 Mbps in September 2009, will now be even easier to access with a new automatic log-in feature.
This new feature, called Seamless and Secure Access (SSA) enables an "always on" experience by automatically connecting and logging into the network when the user's device is at a Wireless@SG hotspot. This means users of the network would not have to re-enter their credentials each time they log-in, in order to access applications like VoIP, instant messaging and social networking.

See Press Release
Source: IDA Singapore

Heated discussions have been aroused by the recent widespread media coverage of the “Fair Usage Policies” (hereinafter referred to as “Policies”) on the unlimited usage of mobile broadband services implemented by mobile network operators.

See Press Release
Source: OFTA Office of the Telecommunications Authority

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has issued recently its Determination declaring both Batelco and Zain dominant in their mobile termination services markets. TRA also issued a Position Paper on the regulation of mobile termination rates. Mobile termination is a wholesale service, used by operators to terminate calls, Short Messaging Services (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) on mobile networks. 

According to this determination, Zain’s wholesale mobile termination rates i.e. the amount charged to other operators to terminate a call, will be regulated consistent with the provisions of the Telecommunications Law applying to operators declared dominant. Batelco rates will continue to be regulated.

See Press Release

Source: Bahrain - Telecommunications Regulatory Authority .

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) issued a new Code of Practice to provide the industry with guidelines on the drawing up of service contracts.

The Code will be implemented on voluntary basis and takes effect immediately, replacing two similar codes which the Telecommunications Authority (the TA) issued in 2004. The TA issued a voluntary Code of Practice for the Service Contracts for the Provision of Public Mobile Radiotelephone Services in 2001 and the code was subsequently revised in 2004. The TA also issued the Code of Practice for the Service Contracts for the Provision of Public Telecommunications Service in 2004. These two codes provided that, among other things, language should be plain and words legible and salient points of a contract (such as the compensation clauses and terms for any early termination) should be presented in a prominent place or highlighted in the contract.

See Press Release

Source: Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA)

OFTA has published a decision following an investigation into Alleged Misleading or Deceptive Newspaper Advertisements by SmarTone. The Telecommunications Authority (the “Authority”) received an industry complaint alleging that certain newspaper advertisements of SmarTone promoting its mobile service packages were in contravention of section 7M of the Telecommunications Ordinance1 (the “Ordinance”). The Authority’s conclusion is  that this was a substantive breach of section 7M, and having regard to the maximum applicable penalty of $1,000,000, the appropriate starting point for determining the level of financial penalty is $220,000.  While the breach is serious, in mitigation it is noted that the Authority has not received any section 7M related consumer complaints concerning the Advertisements. Further, SmarTone has been cooperative with OFTA throughout the investigation. The Authority has not been able to establish that there are any aggravating factors which offset the mitigating factors which have been taken into account. Accordingly, the Authority is of the opinion that in this case of a third financial penalty for SmarTone, the penalty which is proportionate and reasonable in relation to the conduct concerned is $180,000.

See Press Release and PDF document (attached)
Source : OFTA

T110_08.pdf (1,69 MB)

Businesses and consumers can look forward to using Chinese characters in their website address to better reach their customers or friends who prefer Chinese web addresses. The Singapore Network Information Centre (SGNIC), the national registry for domain names, will be accepting initial registrations for Chinese Domain Names from 23 November 2009.

This opens up new options for domain names, as anyone can soon register for Web addresses such as .sg so that their target market or audience can better identify with them. SGNIC will offer these Chinese domain names at both 2nd and 3rd levels in all categories (namely, .sg, .com.sg, .gov.sg, .org.sg, .edu.sg, .net.sg, .per.sg). For instance, a 2nd level domain name would be .sg, while a 3rd level domain name would read as .com.sg.

See Press Release
Source: IDA Singapore

The Georgian telecoms regulator, the National Communications Commission has cancelled a planned auction of additional radio spectrum in the GSM1800 and UMTS bands. The regulator said that no bidders had submitted applications by the deadline of 5th October.

The Auction was declared failed at the Session held today by the Georgian National Communications Commission.

See Press Release
Source: cellular-news

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is planning on changing the way the current mobile phone industry bills its customers. While the notion of per second billing is welcome by the country's 450 million mobile subscribers, it is a jarring note for the operators who may see their revenues falling by 15% as a result.

See More
Source The Economic Times

Japan's Fair Trade Commission issued a cease-and-desist order to Qualcomm Inc., saying the supplier of semiconductor products for mobile phones used its market dominance to prevent Japanese handset manufacturers from asserting their intellectual-property rights.

See More
Source Total Telecom

Despite facing the horrific Mumbai attacks, India is still not geared up to track calls made using VoIP. Therefore, until India comes out with a mechanism to trace such calls, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has requested that the service remains blocked in India.

See More
Source The Times of India

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (SKMM) would like to remind the public that abuse on 999 Emergency Service is an offence under section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (CMA 1998) and if convicted, the offender can be fined up to RM50,000 or imprisoned for a term not exceeding one year or both. SKMM has to date prosecuted two cases in court and there are still 25 cases under investigation.

See Press Release
Source: Skmm Malaysia

The Indian government is considering further changes to its oft-delayed 3G license auction and may limit the tender to four new entrants per license area (circle). In addition to the state-owned operators who have already been granted licenses in their respective Metro Circles, the move would limit competition to five operators.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular News

An Auction of Radio Spectrum in the 1800MHz Band for Expansion of Public Mobile Telecommunications Services, Successful Bidder Notice was referred to in paragraph 5.4.1 of the Notice dated 24 April 2009 that was issued by the Telecommunications Authority (the “Authority”) in exercise of the powers conferred by section 32I of the Telecommunications Ordinance, the Telecommunications (Level of Spectrum Utilization Fees) (Second Generation Mobile Services) Regulation, the Telecommunications (Determining Spectrum Utilization Fees by Auction) Regulation and all other powers enabling him to specify the terms and conditions of the Auction and the payment of the Spectrum Utilization Fees. Unless otherwise stated or the context otherwise requires, words and expressions used in this notice have the same meaning as that given to them in the Notice.
 
The Authority is pleased to announce that the Successful Bidders of the Auction and the Frequency Bands assigned to them.  See document.
Source: OFTA

Azerbaijan Business Center writes that Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies (MCIT) is planning to distribute frequencies required for the provision of third generation services soon, with the aim of enabling cellcos to launch commercially by the end of 2009. The report states that the country’s Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Ali Abbasov said all three of Azerbaijan’s GSM operators - Azercell, Bakcell and Azerfon (Nar Mobile) - have already applied for a licence to launch 3G services.

See Press Release
Source: Telegeography

The Philippines’ dominant telecoms company Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) yesterday launched a nationwide service offering unlimited calls to all areas, but the move was greeted coolly by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) which said such promotions break local telecoms rules and as such, must be stopped.

According to a report from online journal Business World, the telco’s ‘Call All’ offer promises unlimited calls all over the Philippines for an additional PHP250 (USD5.27) on the user’s landline phone bill. Anyone taking the add-on will be given a PLDT ‘Landline Plus’ subscriber identification module (SIM) for a fixed-wireless connection. ‘We are targeting over 1.3 million PLDT retail landline subscribers and we are also aiming to capture at least 200,000 additional applications each month,’ PLDT retail voice acquisition head Patrick S Tang told reporters.

See Press Release
Source: Telegeography

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) announced today that the regulatory guidance on fixed-mobile interconnection charge (FMIC) in favour of the mobile party’s network pay (MPNP) model will be withdrawn as planned on 27 April 2009 when the two-year transition period ends. Interconnection charge for fixed-mobile interconnection will thereafter be settled among fixed and mobile operators by commercial agreements without any ex ante regulatory intervention.

See Press Release
Source : OFTA

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) published for the first time the statistics of local mobile data usage, which sees a surge to 147 Terabytes as of January 2009, or an average amount of 44 Mbytes per 2.5G/3G mobile user for that particular month. This represents 4 times and 14 times the mobile data usage over the same period in 2008 and 2007 respectively.

"We are truly appreciative of the investment that the mobile network operators have been putting in our infrastructures such that mobile services of higher speed and better quality are continually provided to the community. The strong growth of mobile data usage is also attributable to the offer of competitive service packages by mobile network operators and the increasing popularity of a variety of smart phones available in the market," a spokesperson of OFTA said..

See Press Release
Source: Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA)

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the recommendations on “Lock-in period for Promoter’s Equity and other conditionalities for Unified Access Service Licensees (UASL)”.

The Telecom sector in today’s India is intensely competitive with 281 Access service licensees. Of these, 121 UAS licenses were awarded in January, 2008. The total number of telephone connections stood at 400.05 million at the end of January, 2009. Despite the phenomenal growth, the overall tele-density is 34.50% and the rural tele-density is only 13.13%. Clearly, there is tremendous scope for further expansion of network requiring further infusion of capital. With the growth being contributed mainly by mobile telephones, availability and efficient utilization of spectrum, which is a scarce national resource, assumes importance. Any exploitation for undue gains either in terms of price of the spectrum or its framework for usage under a telecom license should not be allowed as it would defeat the goals of competition and would also be counterproductive for the industry as a whole.

See Press Release
Source: TRAI

On 4 November 2008, PCCW, a public listed company, announced that its two major shareholders, PCRD (which is connected with Mr Richard Li) and Netcom Group (which is connected with a Mainland state-owned enterprise), were proposing to buyout the public shareholding, resulting in Mr. Li’s connected interests holding 66.67% of PCCW and Netcom Group holding the remaining 33.33%.  PCCW is a telecommunications carrier licensee, and on 26 November 2008, it submitted a formal application for the Authority’s prior consent to the Transaction further to section 7P of the Ordinance. Public consultation on the application ended on 15 December 2008. On 22 December 2008 the Authority consented to the Transaction pursuant to section 7P(7) of the Ordinance, on the basis that the Transaction would not have, or would not be likely to have, the effect of substantially lessening competition in a telecommunications market in Hong Kong. Further to the 23 December 2008 announcement this report sets out the full reasons why consent was granted.
See Report
Source: OFTA

rp20090121.pdf (58,66 KB)

The Telecommunications Authority (“TA”) first issued a Statement on “Interconnection and Related Competition Issues Statement No. 7 –
‘Carrier-to-Carrier Charging Principles’” (“Statement No. 7”)1 on 10 June 1995 to provide guidance on carrier-to-carrier charging principles for interconnection between fixed telecommunications network services (“FTNS”) operators that the TA will rely on in the initial phases of competition in the local FTNS market in making a determination under section 36A of the Telecommunications Ordinance (Cap. 106) (“the Ordinance”).  The Statement No. 7 was subsequently revised on 18 November 1997 (“Statement No. 7 (First Revision)”) and on 18 March 2002 (“Statement No. 7 (Second Revision)”) to reflect the developing competitive environment in Hong Kong and to address the latest interconnection issues that had arisen since the introduction of competition in the local FTNS market in 1995.  This consultation paper seeks views and comments on the TA’s proposal of updating the Statement No. 7 (Second Revision) as a consequence of the developments in the regulatory environment for local fixed telecommunications services that have taken place since March 2002.
See document
Source: OFTA

20090116.pdf (191,25 KB)

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a paper on measures to improve Telecom Penetration in Rural India – The next 100 million subscribers.

See paper
Source: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) submits its Recommendations to DoT On The Spectrum Charging For 3G Services moves from spectrum charges linked with revenue to Flat Rate linked to market based price and on Allocation and pricing of spectrum fro 3G and BWA services.

See paper
Source: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)

Investigation into Alleged Anti-Competitive and / or Misleading or Deceptive Conduct by Pacnet Internet (HK) Limited, Hutchison Global Communications Limited, and PCCW-HKT Telephone Limited.

The Complainant is a prominent property and facilities management services company which maintains a presence at over 130 separate locations throughout Hong Kong.  It relies on outside telecommunications services to connect its operations at these locations with its company headquarters. In November 2007, when the company switched service provider, problems in the changeover surfaced, resulting in a large number of the remote locations not having broadband connection to central office on the due date.  The company complained that this was the result of various transgressions by the telecommunications service providers involved.

See Press Release

T23_08.pdf (110,19 KB)

Source: OFTA

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority ("OFTA") announced that PCCW-HKT Telephone Limited ("PCCW") has launched CDMA2000 mobile service in Hong Kong.

"This is the fifth 3G mobile network in Hong Kong , in addition to the four W-CDMA networks licensed in 2001. At service launch, the new network offers high speed data and voice services conforming to the CDMA2000 standard in the golden bowl areas covering the Kowloon peninsula and the northern part of Hong Kong Island. The service coverage will be further extended to cover places such as the airport, Mass Transit Railway stations, the road tunnels and border control points," the spokesperson of OFTA said.

"CDMA is one of the major mobile communications standards and it has been widely deployed in Canada, the USA, Japan, Korea and the mainland China. With the launch of the CDMA2000 service in Hong Kong, visitors holding CDMA equipment can now enjoy CDMA2000 roaming services. This will strengthen Hong Kong's strategic position as a world city as well as the gateway between the mainland China and the world," the spokesperson supplemented.

See Press Release
Source: OFTA

Russia's Communications Minister Igor Shchyogolev said yesterday that the government in Syria is considering allowing a Russian mobile operator into its market, Reuters reports. Speaking at the Russian-Syrian Intergovernmental Commission, Shchyogolev is quoted as saying: 'They have an idea to add one more mobile operator there.

The participation of Russian companies in the Syrian mobile market is possible.’ Commenting on the Minister’s statement a spokeswoman for Russian mobile operator MTS confirmed it would be interested in entering the market, while Vimpelcom, the second largest mobile carrier in Russia, has previously said it is interested in markets in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Number three player MegaFon also confirmed it would consider any opportunity that might emerge.

See Press Release
Source: Telegeography

Businesses and consumers can soon look forward to a new range of domain names that will offer exclusivity and be easy to remember. The Singapore Network Information Centre (SGNIC), Singapore’s national registry for domain names, will release Single-Character Domain Names (SCDN) such as WWW.A.SG, WWW.B.SG, WWW.C.SG, based on the 26 letters in the English alphabet series.

SCDN will join the family of pure numeric domain names released last year and add on to the vibrancy of the online scene here in Singapore as businesses, organisations and individuals will have more domain name options that were previously unavailable.

See Press Release
Source: IDA

TRAI seeks space for Public Service Broadcasting in its Recommendations on Issues relating to entry of certain entities into Broadcasting and Distribution activities.

As regards the question of entry of State Governments, urban and rural local bodies, etc. into broadcasting activities, the Authority has taken note of the fact that at present these entities have not been permitted to enter into broadcasting activities.

See Press Release
Source: TRAI

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authorities of Bahrain and Hong Kong met last week to exchange views on the challenges for regulation and regulators. The two regulators were attending an annual conference organised by the International Institute of Communications; (IIC) addressing the subject of regulation and convergence in media and communications.

See Press Release
Source: Kingdom of Bahrain - TRA Telecommunications Regulatory Authority

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority ("OFTA") issued today ( 31 October 2008 ) a consultation paper to solicit public views on various issues in connection with the voluntary implementation of Fixed Mobile Number Portability ("FMNP").

Under the present arrangement, subscribers to the service provided by one fixed network operator may port their numbers to another fixed network operator. Likewise, subscribers to the service provided by one mobile network operator may port their numbers to another mobile network operator. However, cross platform number portability between fixed and mobile networks, commonly known as FMNP, is not yet available in Hong Kong . The TA invites public views on the proposed voluntary implementation of FMNP, the need for the TA to set out the necessary basic guiding principles in order to ensure an orderly implementation of voluntary FMNP, and other associated issues, including the need to identify the asymmetrical regulatory arrangements which currently apply to fixed and mobile services and which may impede the implementation of FMNP.

A copy of the consultation paper as well as the consumer survey report can be downloaded from the following hyperlinks at OFTA's website.

Source: OFTA

TRAI’s Regulation on Unsolicited Commercial Call completes one year of effective operation. 100 million telephone numbers cross checked by Telemarketers with NDNC before calling on 25th September 2008.

The National Do Not Call Registry (NDNC) is a data base of telephone numbers of those subscribers who do not want to receive Unsolicited Commercial Calls. It was set up under the “Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communications Regulations, 2007” issued by TRAI and has come into operation w.e.f 12th October 2007. All the registered telemarketers before making marketing calls are required to submit / upload the list of telephone numbers which they want to call for telemarketing purpose to the NDNC. The NDNC takes out (delete) the telephone number of subscribers who are already registered with NDNC from this list and returns the clean list to the telemarketer for calling. Presently, there are 19,163 telemarketers registered with Department of Telecommunications.

See Press Release
Source: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has announced that licence fees for rural landline services will be waived, Telecom Tiger reports. It is expected that the ruling could save providers up to INR2 billion (USD46.7 million) per year, and it is hoped may encourage private players to consider investment in rural areas. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, the Ministry of Communications (MoC) has committed to increasing rural teledensity to 4% by 2010.

See Press Release
Source: TeleGeography

January 2008, the Telecommunications Authority (“TA”) published a consultation paper entitled “Assignment of the Available Radio Spectrum in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz Bands” to seek views and comments from the industry and interested parties on the assignment  of the available radio spectrum. After careful consideration of the submissions, the TA draws conclusions. 

 

ta20080704ex.pdf (8,84 KB)

Source: OFTA

The Government noted with concerns the occurrence of some door-to-door illicit sale activities selling digital terrestrial television (DTT) set-top boxes by some salesmen claiming to be staff of the Housing Department. The salesmen were allegedly spreading the rumour that the existing four free analogue TV channels (i.e. the Home and International channels of ATV and the Jade and Pearl channels of TVB) would soon be terminated and that new set-top boxes would need to be installed for free television reception.

See Press Release
Source: Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA)

Total 8.00 million telephone connections (Wireline and Wireless) have been added during April 2008 as compared to 10.40 million connections added in March 2008. The total number of telephone connections reaches 308.51 million at the end of April 2008 as compared to 300.51 million in March 2008. The overall tele-density is 26.89% at the end of April 2008 as against 26.22% in March 2008. The total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA & WLL(F)) base stood at 269.30 million at the end of April 2008.

See Press Release
Source: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)

Certain newspaper advertisements by HKBN about its  broadband services were alleged to be misleading or deceptive.  The complainant claimed that HKBN made unqualified statements in
the advertisements concerning the transmission speeds of its broadband services, when the speed performance was subject to various qualifications that affected the claimed
speeds.  The complainant alleged that the advertisements were misleading or deceptive in the circumstances.

The Authority’s conclusion is  that this was a substantive breach of section 7M, and having regard to the maximum applicable penalty of $1,000,000, the appropriate starting point for determining the level of financial penalty is $270,000. While the breach is serious, in mitigation it is noted that the Authority has not  received any consumer complaints about the advertisements, and there is no evidence that  large numbers of consumers were actually induced to take up the services, under the  belief that the services would be subject to no qualifications that may substantially affect
the speed performance.  The Authority has also taken into account the fact that HKBN has generally been cooperative in providing information requested by OFTA to conduct the  investigation. The Authority is of the opinion that in this case of a third penalty for HKBN, the penalty which is proportionate and reasonable in relation to the conduct concerned is $220,000.

See Press Release
Source: OFTA

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) said that it is prepared to help facilitate fixed and mobile network operators to engage in commercial negotiations relating to the withdrawal of the regulatory guidance on "Mobile Party's Network Pays (MPNP)". The withdrawal of the current MPNP arrangement is one of the major decisions set out in the "Deregulation for Fixed-Mobile Convergence" Statement issued by the Telecommunications Authority (TA) on 27 April 2007. Under the MPNP arrangement, the fixed-mobile interconnection charge (FMIC) is paid by a MNO to the interconnecting FNO for telephony traffic both from a fixed customer to a mobile customer, and from a mobile customer to a fixed customer.

See Press Release
Source: OFTA

Statement by The Minister Energy Water and Communications, Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications:

"I would like to announce the Government’s decision to increase broadband services to the whole country. This is necessary given that Malaysia’s broadband penetration rate, at 18% is very low as compared to other more developed nations in Asia like Singapore (at 78%), Hong Kong (80%) and Korea (93%).

The implementation of nationwide broadband services will significantly contribute to the development of the country’s social-economic development. In the past, water supply and electricity were important factors in attracting foreign investment and today, broadband connectivity has become a basic necessity."

See Press Release
Source: Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission

The Government has decided to create the Unified Carrier Licence (UCL) as a single licensing vehicle for fixed, mobile and/or converged services, subject to the negative vetting of the amendment regulations by the Legislative Council. Distinction between fixed and mobile networks and services is becoming increasingly blurred due to market and technology developments. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as "Fixed-Mobile Convergence" (FMC). The new UCL regime will enable facility-based operators to provide different services under a single and flexible licensing framework, thereby paving the way for FMC. Following the publication of the Telecommunications Authority (TA) Statement on UCL last Friday, the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) today (13 May 2008) briefed the Information Technology and Broadcasting Panel of the Legislative Council about the details of the UCL.

See Press Release
Source: OFTA

OFTA Investigates into Suspected Use of Unlicensed Radio Transmitter Equipment The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) has today (4 May 2008) initiated an investigation into the suspected use of unlicensed radio transmitter equipment following unlicensed radio transmission detected at 102.8 MHz. The radio transmission mainly relayed the voice contents of an open forum held by Citizens' Radio at the Times Square, Causeway Bay.

"The use of unlicensed radio transmitters is a criminal offence under section 8 of the Telecommunications Ordinance (TO). Those who knowingly participate in the delivery of messages through unlicensed radio transmitters may also commit a criminal offence under section 23 of the TO," warned the spokesperson of OFTA.

See Press Release
Source: Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA)

In its response to an independent review of government spectrum holdings in Australia, publicly released today, the Australian Communications and Media Authority has acknowledged the ongoing importance of spectrum access to government while generally supporting the recommendations of the review. These recommendations include increased transparency in the use of spectrum by government bodies, increased sharing of spectrum and increased use of market approaches to improve the management of government spectrum.

‘Government users account for almost half the use of the most valuable spectrum bands under 5 GHz. The sheer size and importance of government spectrum holdings and the different way they are often treated compared to other spectrum users made a comprehensive review of such holdings desirable. The review was also timely given increasing spectrum demand pressures and technological change,’ said Chris Chapman, ACMA Chairman.

‘ACMA agrees with the review finding that the details of government spectrum use are often obscure and not readily available. While their continued access to spectrum is often essential, some government spectrum users may not face sufficient incentives to make best possible use of this resource. The Independent Review of Government Spectrum Holdings report and ACMA’s preliminary response to the review’s recommendations, Improving the Management of Government Spectrum Holdings, are available on the ACMA website. Source: ACMA.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) starts a new joint project with the European Community entitled “Support for the establishment of harmonized policies for the ICT market in the ACP”. This is a four-year project aiming at developing and promoting an harmonized approach to Information and Communication Technology ICT policies in the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of States (ACP), in close collaboration with the regional organizations, through the development of harmonized ICT policies, guidelines and regulations in the area concerned and at building institutional capacity in the field of ICT through a range of targeted training, education and knowledge sharing measures.

In order to customize the project to the specific needs of each region, the project is implemented via three sub-projects:

a) Support for Harmonization of the ICT Policies in Sub-Sahara Africa (HIPSSA),
b) Enhancing competitiveness in the Caribbean through the harmonization of ICT Policies, Legislation and Regulation Procedures (HIPCAR) and
c) Capacity Building and ICT Policy, Regulatory and Legislative Frameworks Support for Pacific Island States (ICB4PIS).

ITU seeks talented people to fill the following job opportunities related to the joint ITU-EC project:

• PPP1-2008 - P5 - Project Manager, Support for the establishment of harmonized policies for the ICT market in the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of States (ACP)
  Duty station: Geneva, Switzerland
• PPP2-2008 - P4 - Senior Project Coordinator, Support for harmonization of the ICT policies in Sub-Sahara Africa” (HIPSSA)
  Duty station: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 
• PPP3-2008 - P3 - Project Coordinator, Enhancing competitiveness in the Caribbean through the harmonization of ICT Policies, Legislation and Regulation Procedures (HIPCAR)
  Duty station: Trinidad

More information about these vacancies can be found in English at the ITU website.   

The deadline for applications is 28 April 2008.

Thailand’s National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has approved a plan to award 3G UMTS licences in the 2GHz spectrum band in August this year, rather than next year as previously announced, reports Thai newspaper The Nation, quoting the regulator’s secretary-general Suranan Wongvithayakamjorn. The official also said that the three privately owned cellcos AIS, DTAC and True Move would still be allowed to go ahead with their previously announced plans to roll out 3G services in the meantime using existing frequency allocation in the 850MHz and 900MHz bands, although he added that they must comply with new 3G regulations once in place. The NTC plans to issue bandwidth of 45MHz in the 2100MHz band, but has not finalised crucial details including the number of desired 3G licensees. It has scheduled a public consultation next month to evaluate spectrum pricing models and the results of a study of draft 3G licensing terms and conditions, including the number of concessions to be made available and licensing methods.

See Press Release
Source: TeleGeography

In order to reduce input cost of Telecom access Service Providers, thereby facilitating reduction in tariff further, and to enhance the teledensity including rural areas, the Department of Telecom has formulated the some guidelines on infrastructure sharing among the Service Providers and Infrastructure Providers.

See Guidelines
Source: Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Department of Telecommunications

According to the Economic Times, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has said that interested parties may bid for up to 10MHz of 3G spectrum, rejecting telecom regulator TRAI’s recommendation to award just 5MHz. The decision will effectively allow foreign players and new domestic companies to bid for a maximum of two 5MHz blocks, the minimum deemed necessary for a start up operation.

See Press Release
Source: TeleGeography

The OFTA issued a TA Statement on "Misleading or Deceptive Representations concerning the Provision of Residential Broadband Internet Access Services to Consumers in Hong Kong"

See document
Source: OFTA

 

The OFTA called for Submission on Consultation Paper on the Assignment of the Available Radio Spectrum in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz Bands; the questions were:
- Do you agree that the available spectrum in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz band be made available to the incumbent 2G MNOs only?
- Do you agree that the frequency assignment should be valid until 29 September 2021?
- Do you agree that auction be used to determine to whom the concerned spectrum should be assigned?
- Do you agree that the radio spectrum in the 900 MHz bands (889.1 – 889.9 MHz paired with 934.1 – 934.9 MHz) and the 1800 MHz bands (1780.1 – 1784.9 MHz paired with 1875.1 – 1879.9 MHz) be divided into one (1) and six (6) blocks respectively as shown in Figures 1 and 2 above for assignment?
- Do you have any comments on the proposed SUF calculation methods as stated above?
- Do you agree that a single round sealed bid auction as described above be adopted in the auctioning of the frequency blocks?
- Do you agree that there will not be any restriction or cap on the amount of spectrum that a bidder can acquire during the auction?

See Submissions to the Consultation
Source: Office of the Telecommunications Authority - OFTA

According to Reuters, Thailand's telecommunications regulator is expected to issue long-awaited licenses for the third-generation (3G) mobile services to private operators in May. It was in a process of drafting qualification criteria for licences by an advisor which should take about three months, National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) Chairman Choochart Promphrasid told Reuters.

See full article
Source: Reuters

According to Telegeography, the Chinese government will confirm plans to halve the number of mainland telecoms players from six to three before the National People's Congress meeting in March. China Telecommunications Corp would acquire the CDMA network of mobile operator China United Telecommunications, while China Unicom’s GSM network will be merged into China Network Communications Corp. China Mobile Communications Corp (China Mobile) will merge with  China Tietong Telecommunications Corp. and China Satellite Communications Corp will be merged into a state-owned aerospace industry group.

Source : Telegeography

Subscribers Addition inches towards 9 million per month.
Wreless Subscribers addition touches new peak of 8.77 million per month.
Broadband continues to grow in the country.
Tele-density reaches 24.63%.

See Press Release
Source: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

According to China Daily, China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) and National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) jointly announced on Wednesday the country's mobile roaming service charges would be lowered starting from March 1 amid fervor of consumer expectation to entirely abolish them.

Mobile phone users would be charged about 8 US cents per minute for making calls outside the local service area, and about 5 cents, per minute for receiving calls when they travel to another province, according to the new plan. This means that the country's 539 million mobile subscribers would be able to enjoy price cuts ranging from 54 percent to 73 percent from next month on, or no later than May 1.

Read full Article

Source: China Daily

Vietnamese military-owned mobile operator Viettel  received approval from the Vietnam government to invest USD83.77 million to build a telecom network in  Laos. Viettel is the only Vietnamese operator so far to have received permission to invest in Laos. Viettel also holds a GSM licence in Cambodia.

Source: Telegeography

On 24 August 2007, OFTA issued an industry consultation paper about the use of PCCW’s public payphone kiosks on public streets and unleased
Government lands for the provision of public Wi-Fi service (the “Consultation Paper”) and invited views and comments, including a set of draft Guidelines
(the “draft Guidelines”) to facilitate operators’ negotiation. In response to the Consultation Paper, the TA received 9 submissions. After considering the submitted views and comments,  a Statement now sets out below the TA’s views and decisions on the issues raised in the Consultation Paper.

See the document

tas20080215.pdf (104,93 KB)

Source: OFTA

OFTA has just published a document called "A Decade of External Telecommunications Market Liberalisation: Review and Prospect".

Source:  OFTA

20080125.pdf (15,89 KB)

Thailand’s National Telecommunications Commission (NTC)  to award both WiMAX and 3G mobile network operating licences in the third quarter of this year. The announcement follows a series of  promises to issue next generation concessions; last September the regulator said 3G licences would be allocated in the first quarter of 2008. In the latest announcement, an official from the watchdog said that five WiMAX and three 3G spectrum licences are likely to be offered in an auction - the choice of method – straight auction versus beauty contest – has still not been decided on.

Source: Telegeography

The government will concentrate on 2.3 gigahertz (GHz) world interoperability for microwave access (WiMax) and at the same time monitor the development of 2.5 Ghz spectrum, said Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik. "We cannot have both spectrums at the same time because the costs to set up the bases are expensive," he told reporters after lauching the Asia Pacific Wireless Broadband Forum 2008 here Friday.

See Press Release
Source: KTAK - Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications

Hong Kong's Telecommunications Authority (“TA”) published a consultation paper to solicit views from the industry and interested parties on the demand for the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands and how the demand may be met.

See document

20080118.pdf (139,52 KB)

Source: OFTA

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority launched an on-line database service today making available a channel for the public to access readily via the internet the coverage information of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) services on a building-by-building basis.

See Press Release
Source: OFTA

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) launched an on-line database service, making available a channel for the public to access readily via the internet the coverage information of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) services on a building-by-building basis.

"This is an initiative by OFTA for the convenience of the public to enquire about DTT services coverage information for residential buildings," a spokesperson for OFTA said.

See Press Release
Source: OFTA - Office for the Telecommunications Authority

According to Reuters, Beijing has given the green light to the restructuring of China's telecommunications sector that will include a series of mergers to create three industry giants capable of providing a full range of services. As of now, each Chinese telecoms operator concentrates on either the mobile or the fixed-line sector. After the reform, three telecoms giants--China Mobile, China Netcom and China Telecom--will be left to provide a full range of fixed-line and mobile communications services.

See more
Source: Reuters

The Magistrate hearing the case concerning unlicensed broadcasting by Citizens' Radio ruled today (8 January 2008) that the current licensing regime under the Telecommunications Ordinance, Cap 106 and the charges based upon a failure to comply with that regime were unconstitutional. As a consequence of the ruling, he dismissed all the charges against the defendants.

See Press Release
Source: OFTA

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) today (7 January 2008) reported that digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcast has no bearing on the interference of analogue television services, after conducting investigation into over half of the public complaints received since the launch of DTT services on 31 December 2007.

The investigations were carried out by this office in the past four days in responding to public concern about the suspected interference between DTT and analogue TV signals following the simulcasting of the two services.

See Press Release
Source: OFTA

Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) reported that digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcast has no bearing on the interference of analogue television services, after conducting investigation into over half of the public complaints received since the launch of DTT services on 31 December 2007.

The investigations were carried out by this office in the past four days in responding to public concern about the suspected interference between DTT and analogue TV signals following the simulcasting of the two services.

See Press Release
Source: Office of the Telecommunications Authority

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) announced that digital terrestrial television (DTT) services, have been operating smoothly since launch on 31 December 2007. Members of the public are welcome to call the hotline of OFTA (29616333) during office hours (8:30 – 17:45) if they have any questions about DTT. OFTA will provide technical advice and assistance as necessary.

See Press Release
Source: Office of the Telecommunications Authority

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority of Hong Kong (OFTA) has published important telecommunications statistics on the telecommunications and internet services and also on number porting among local fixed and telecommunications network services operators.

See Key Telecommunications Statistics
See Statistics on Number Portings

Source: Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA)

Indonesian mobile start-up Hutchison CP Telecommunications (HCPT), a unit of Hutchison Telecommunications International Limited (HTIL), has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with rival operator Excelcomindo Pratama (Excelcom) concerning the sharing of base station towers. The MoU will allow HCPT to share base transceiver stations (BTSs) with Excelcom for a period of up to twelve years, enabling it to speed up the rollout of its network in the country. Commenting on the announcement Dennis Lui, chief executive officer of HTIL said: 'This arrangement with Excelcom will greatly assist the acceleration of HCPT's network rollout in Indonesia. Together with our other network expansion plans in the country HCPT will fast become a nationwide operator.'

See Press Release

Source: TeleGeography

Singapore today took a step closer towards having an open access Next Generation National Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN), which will offer pervasive ultra-high speed connectivity by 2015. The Request-For-Proposal (RFP) is now open to all interested parties to submit their bid to design, build and operate the passive infrastructure layer of the Next Gen NBN.

The Next Gen NBN is expected to be available nationwide by 2015, although consumers can begin to look forward to a range of new and exciting Next Gen Services such as high-definition video conferencing, telemedicine, Grid Computing-on-Demand, security and immersive learning applications on the Next Gen NBN from about 2010.

See Press Release

Source: IDA Singapore 

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (“OFTA”) has completed an investigation into the competitiveness of local leased circuit (“LLC”) provision in Hong Kong. The purpose of the investigation was to obtain an updated picture of the state of competition in relation to LLC services, especially from the perspective of users.

The main conclusion to be drawn is that there are effective competitive constraints on traditional LLCs. Alternative technologies and service platforms are increasingly viable, and the various competing service providers are closely chasing each other on service quality and network coverage. The competitive pressure from new entrants and new service platforms is maintaining the overall trend of lower prices for local data connection services in Hong Kong.

See Press Release

Source: Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA)

MIC has convened the Study Group on a Comprehensive Legal System for Communications and Broadcasting (Chair: Professor Emeritus HORIBE Masao, Hitotsubashi University) since August 2006, and now releases the final report compiled by the Study Group.

See More

Source: MIC (Japan)

Vietnam will be accessible from the AT&T global network through collaboration with one of the leading local telecommunication carriers, Viettel Corporation. The collaboration with Viettel, sealed against the backdrop of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit 2006 in Hanoi, paves the way for AT&T to extend advanced information and communications support to its growing number of multinational enterprises customers with sites in Vietnam. AT&T currently serves customers with sites in Vietnam through interconnection agreements with domestic telecom carriers. Viettel will provide services within Vietnam, while AT&T will provide service outside Vietnam. However, through this collaboration, Viettel and AT&T will connect Vietnam into the AT&T Global network and offer multinational enterprise customers in the country advanced networking services through Viettel. Initial services will include Virtual Private Network and Frame Relay services. There are plans to add more services in the future.

See Press Release

Source : AT&T

Indian Government has decided to introduce Mobile number portability (MNP) in Phase-I in the four Metros cities i.e. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai for the fourth quarter of 2008.

MNP enables end user to retain their telephone number without compromising on quality, reliability and operational convenience when they change their service provider in a service area. It requires the originating network to determine the correct destination for a given number, and would require a database management having information of the networks and associated ported numbers.

See Press Release

Source: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)

Amendment in conjunction with reallocation of the frequency band used for fixed radio communications for broadcasting business (3,456-3,600 MHz band) and securing of frequencies for the fourth-generation mobile communication systems In order to reallocate the frequency band that is currently used for fixed radio communications for broadcasting business (3,456-3,600 MHz band) and secure the frequencies for the fourth-generation mobile communication systems, MIC developed a draft MIC notice to partially amend the Frequency Assignment Plan (MPT Notice No. 746 of 2000).

MIC thus invites public comment on the draft notice from today to Friday, January 4, 2008.

See More

Source : MIC (Japan)

MIC will review the Guidelines concerning Applications of the Telecommunications Business Law and the Radio Law pertaining to MVNO* (formulated in June 2002; revised in February 2007) based on the Mobile Business Revitalization Plan, which was released in September 2007 to promote entry of MVNOs into the market.

Prior to the review, MIC invites proposals on the matters to be considered or discussed in revising the guidelines from today to Friday, January 11, 2008, with a view to using the results as references in the study for the revision.

See more

Source: MIC (Japan)

MIC has developed the draft Guideline for Operation of the Opinion Submission System in the Telecommunications Business Field in regard to the measure to strengthen the dispute settlement function, which is one of the measures covered in the New Competition Promotion Program 2010.
MIC now invites public comment on the draft guideline from today to Tuesday, December 11, 2007.MIC now invites public comment on the draft guideline from today to Tuesday, December 11, 2007.

See more

Source: MIC

Introduction of radio equipment to be installed on ships or vehicles concerning the Inmarsat BGAN system MIC has developed the draft MIC instruction to amend part of the Examination Standards Relating to the Radio Law (hereinafter called "draft amendment") in order to introduce radio equipment to be installed on ships and vehicles in regard to the Inmarsat BGAN system.
MIC thus invites public comment on the draft amendment from today to Wednesday, December 12, 2007.

See more

Source: MIC

The Korea-Uzbekistan IAC (Information Access Center) has opened in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. The center is expected to play a leading role to establish IT infrastructure and provide IT education in Uzbekistan.

The MIC and Agency of Communication and Information of Uzbekistan held the opening ceremony of the Korea-Uzbekistan IAC in the morning of October 25th at the main hall of the Tashkent Information and Communications University. High ranking officials of both countries participated in the ceremony, including Minister Younghwan Yoo of the MIC, Director General Abdulla N. Aripov of Communications and Information Agency (Deputy Prime Minister), Korean Ambassador Jemin Kyun in Uzbekistan, President Youn-gi Sohn of Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion, and President Kashimov of Tashkent University of Information Technologies. Full press release

Source: Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC), Korea

According to the latest figures released by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) today (4 November 2007), out of the total 2.5 million households in Hong Kong, 1.98 million households and 1.36 million households are provided with at least two and three customer access networks (CANs) self-built by fixed network operators. In other words, 79% and 55% of households have a choice of at least two and three fixed carriers respectively.

"We are pleased to see the continual investment made by fixed carriers in constructing their networks. The initiative taken by the fixed carriers has enabled consumers to enjoy more choices of telecommunications services," said the OFTA's spokesperson. Full press release

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

According to Telegeography, the government of Vietnam has given the Ministry of Information and Communications the green light to grant 3G licences and mobile WiMAX trial permissions. The decision follows more than a year spent to prepare 3G licencing criteria.

See more

Source : Telegeography

With the digitization and the development of broadband, digital convergence are advancing rapidly. To cope with the convergence trend, Korean government is trying to reform telecommunication and broadcasting related organization and introduce new convergence service like IPTV. Attached is a material which introduce policy direction of the Korean government. Full report 

Source: Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC), Korea

 

New Delhi, 30^th October, 2007: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today directed all Access Service providers, including BSNL and MTNL, the following:

            (i) To provide the facility of unsubscribing of any value added service through telephone calls and SMS, free of charge, and through e-mail or FAX or any other means and also give adequate publicity to such facilities through their websites and by communication through SMS and other means.

            (ii) In case of any offer for any value added services made to the customer in writing or through SMS or FAX or e-mail, such offer shall contain all relevant details of the value added service offered, including the charges thereof, and before activation of such value added service the explicit consent of the customer shall be obtained through telephone or SMS or FAX or e-mail or by other electronic means. Full press release

Source: TRAI, India

 

 

The Government gazetted today (October 26) the commencement notice to implement the second phase of the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance (UEMO), as well as the supporting Unsolicited Electronic Messages Regulation, on December 22, 2007.

     "The second phase of the UEMO will establish rules for sending commercial electronic messages," a spokesperson for the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau said. Full press release

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

Having taken into consideration the changes in market environment resulting from the progress in the shift to IP, such as the advances in the move to broadband, the transition from PSTN (public switched telephone network) to IP (Internet Protocol) networks, and the diversification of business models, MIC is looking to promote greater competition in the telecommunications market and improve user benefits. In order to do this, MIC has formulated a "New Competition Promotion Program 2010" concerning measures to be implemented from the point of view of putting in place fair competition rules by the beginning of the 2010 decade.

Source : MIAC Telecommunications Bureau

Vol17_13.pdf (249,15 KB)060928_1.pdf (35,37 KB)

French-US Alcatel-Lucent has signed contracts with Vietnam Post and Telecoms (VNPT) and its cellular subsidiary MobiFone. MobiFone has engaged the vendor to provide GSM/GPRS/EDGE base stations to improve  coverage and capacity of network. The pair have also agreed to cooperate in a  IP Excellence Centre to support the deployment of broadband networks .

See more

Source: Telegeography

MIC invites public comment on the draft report compiled by the Study Group on Future Images of Universal Service Fund System during the period from October 5 (Fri.) to November 5 (Mon.), 2007. MIC has held the meetings of the Study Group on Future Images of Universal Service Fund System since January 29, 2007, to discuss the universal service fund system in addressing the transition to IP-based networks. The draft report has been compiled based on the results of discussions at this study group, and MIC thus invites public comment thereon.

See Press Release

Source: MIC

With the installation of more than 5,000 Wi-Fi hotspots at around 3000 locations in the territory, Hong Kong is at the forefront of the world in the provision of public Wi-Fi service, according to the latest statistics published by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority ("OFTA") today (12 October 2007).

"We are pleased to see such a rapid and massive rollout of public Wi-Fi service. Unlike other cities, where the public Wi-Fi service involves either public funding or coordination by governments, such service in Hong Kong is entirely funded by the commercial sector. This testifies once again the success of our market-driven policy. We look forward to this as one of the many initiatives to be taken forward by the commercial operators to further drive the development of Hong Kong as a wireless city," the spokesperson of OFTA said. Full press release

Source: OFCOM, Hong Kong

Vietnam's mobile service operators have complained of problems when it comes to installing base station antennae due to complicated procedures in obtaining construction licences, and strong objections from local residents fearful of possible health problems. Hanoi and northern Ha Nam province project are significant problem areas. The number of stations to be installed has shot up this year with Vinaphone and MobiFone, both owned by state-run incumbent Vietnam Post and Telecoms (VNPT) planning 6,000 new stations between them.

See more

Source : Telegeography

According to Telegeogrpahy, Vietnamese ISP FPT Telecom, a subsidiary of the Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technology (FPT), has  a USD20 million deal with EVN Telecom, part of state-owned utility Electricity of Vietnam to lease a 2.5Gbps international ADSL line. FPT is planning to enter the wireline market and is said to have bought a new switchboard from US vendor Cisco Systems that will allow internet, telephone and television services to be provided via a single cable – so-called ‘triple-play’ services.

See more

Source Telegeography

A project to test WiMAX communications in the remote Lao Cai region of Vietnam, carried out by  Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) in partnership with Intel and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has reached the end of its first phase to evaluate the wireless technology and the demand for it. The project will now enter a second phase, with WiMAX technology installed in the remote Ta Van valley, home to around 700 people.  If phase two is successful, WiMAX technology will be deemed suitable for future rural telecoms rollouts.

See more

Source :Telegeography

First International Telecom (FiTEL)  announced its decision to issue 250m common shares to raise an estimated $91m in fresh capital to be used to set up and operate a WiMAX (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) network in Taiwan. This announcement came after the Taiwanese telecom was one of six companies to be awarded a licence in July by the National Communications Commission (NCC) to build and operate a WiMAX network.

The six companies were given 18 months to build their networks, with the possibility of a one-year extension, and are required to begin operating within six months of completing construction. The licenses are valid for six years and may be renewed only once. The NCC is expected to auction off a licence after June 2009 to operate a WiMAX network on an island-wide basis that would be valid for a period of 10 years. That auction is part of the government's plan to make WiMAX a primary feature of Taiwan's information and communications technology (ICT) industry.


See more

Source: Oxford Business Group

New Delhi, 18^{th September, 2007 -} The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has today released a consultation paper on issues relating to mobile television. Mobile television services refer to provision of television services to subscribers for viewing on handheld or portable devices such as mobile phones. The television content can be provided through the mobile telecommunications networks or by using the broadcasting technologies.

In India, Doordarshan has already launched its mobile TV service in Delhi on trial basis. The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, has sought recommendations of the TRAI on various issues relating to mobile television services, such as international practice, eligibility criteria, net-worth requirement, foreign direct and indirect investment levels, technology to be adopted, revenue sharing, entry fees, bank guarantee, and spectrum to be used. Full press release

 

Source: TRAI, India

TRAI  has issued draft proposals to boost broadband investment. Chief among these is that the USO (universal service obligation) fund, to which Indian operators contribute 5 percent of their annual revenue, be used to subsidize satellite backhaul charges by up to 40 percent when providing broadband links to rural areas.

See article

Source: Telecommunications Online

New Delhi, 14 September, 2007 Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), today issued regulation on Domestic Leased Circuits(DLC). These regulations would benefit both the customers and the service providers. These regulations are expected to enhance competition, allow consumers a wider choice of service providers and make DLCs available at a reasonable price. For service providers these regulations open up the possibility of meeting customers’ demand for end-to-end leased circuits by obtaining DLC or Local Lead from other service providers if such need arises. Full Press release

Source: TRAI, India

New Delhi:8^th Sept 2007-The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (the Authority) had issued “Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communications Regulations, 2007”,on 5^th Jun‘07 for putting in place a mechanism for curbing the unwanted telemarketing calls. The Regulation prescribed a three months time frame to establish a National Do Not Call Registry (NDNC).

 

1. For the implementation of the Regulation, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has authorized NIC for installation, operation and maintenance of NDNC Registry.

2. DoT also issued guidelines on 6^th June,2007 to the existing telemarketers to get themselves register with the DoT through their telecom service providers by 31^st August, 2007.

3. It was envisaged that the NDNC registry would be implemented in three phases:-

i. Online registration of the telemarketer

ii. Registration of telephone users not wanting commercial calls/unwanted calls with their respective telecom service providers so that unsolicited calls are stopped after 45 days of their registration with Telecom Service Providers.

iii. Telemarketers to first check their subscriber calling list with the National Do Not Call Registry, so that such registered numbers are not sent the unsolicited commercial communication. Full Press release

 

Source: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) issued the following statement today (6 September 2007) in response to press enquiries with regard to the Court of Appeal's dismissal of PCCW-HKT Telephone Limited (PCCW)'s appeal of the Court of First Instance's judgment of 13 February 2007 on OFTA's second public consultation on Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC):

"We welcome the decision of the Court of Appeal. OFTA will continue with the implementation of the regulatory changes that have been expounded in the statement issued by Telecommunications Authority (TA) on 27 April 2007." Full press release

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

Geneva, 4 September 2007 — ITU has released a major publication, Trends in Telecommunication Reform: the Road to NGN. In its 8th edition, Trends reports on the evolution of circuit-switched telecommunication into "next-generation" networks, as operators around the world fight to remain competitive. The Report aims at enabling regulators and policy-makers in developing countries to better understand the changes transforming the ICT sector so they can evolve their policy and regulatory frameworks to leverage today’s technological and market developments.

What does NGN mean for regulators? They have many choices to make. Some view NGN as the intersection of the telecom and Internet worlds. If so, which regulatory regime should apply? The current heavily-regulated telecom regulatory model? The lightly-regulated Internet model? Or some new hybrid model? The migration to NGN affords an opportunity for regulators to analyze current practices and revise them in light of what makes sense going forward. This Trends report offers a detailed discussion of the kinds of measures that are needed to ensure that regulation keeps pace with technological and market developments so that the best of NGN is available to all of the world’s people.

The ITU press release is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

More information about the content of the 2007 report is available at the “On the Road to NGN” website.

The publication is available for sale at the ITU bookshop.

With the publication of an Information Memorandum (IM) which sets out the detailed auction rules and conditions today (31 August 2007), the Government invites applications to bid for the radio spectrum for the provision of CDMA2000 mobile services (CDMA2000 services).

"CDMA2000 is one of the main mobile communications standards in the world capable of delivering high speed data services. There are over 350 million mobile subscribers in 85 economies, including 39 million in Mainland, adopting this standard," a spokesperson of the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) said. Full Press release

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

TRAI forwarded its recommendations today to the Department of Telecommunications (DOT), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India on policies that should govern the licensing frame work for access service provision. The recommendations contain proposals on a wide range of inter connected issues that formed the basis of the reference from the DOT dated 13^{th April, 2007.}

DoT’s reference inter-alia required TRAI to make recommendations on key issues like entry regulation in access service market, review of guidelines on Merger & Acquisitions including the provisions relating to cross holding of a licensee company in the same service area, use of combination of technologies (CDMA, GSM & and/or any other) under the same license, roll out obligations etc. Full Press release

Source: TRAI, India

Fiji’s interim Commerce Minister, Taito Waradi, says that 15 companies including local and international firms, have applied for a licence to operate a mobile telephone network in Fiji. The minister’s announcement followed the closing of the deadline for submissions yesterday. The country’s Ministry director of communications Jale Curuki added that the nation could theoretically cater for up to nine mobile operators but conceded that the actual level would be ‘determined by the market.’

Meanwhile, Mr Waradi went on to point out that currently there were no mobile operators licensed in Fiji, with the only recognised companies being Telecom Fiji and FINTEL. ‘Both are paying about USD1.2 million each and Vodafone is riding on the back of Telecom Fiji's licence,’ the minister said. ‘Vodafone Fiji itself does not have a licence,’ he said. See full publication

Source: Telegeography

New Delhi, 28^{th August, 2007 : It has come to the notice of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India that certain service providers are providing CLIP facility as a compulsory chargeable Value Added Service. Examination by the Authority showed that no significant amount of work is involved in presenting the caller line identity to the called subscriber and thus the incremental cost of providing CLIP facility is negligible. Thus the Authority finds no justification in making CLIP facility a compulsory chargeable item. The Authority recalled its earlier Direction issued vide F.No.301-49/2005 dated 16th September, 2005 that all monthly fixed recurring charges including CLIP which are compulsory for a subscriber under any given tariff plan shall be shown under one head to make it easier for the consumer to make a choice from among all tariff plans available in the market. Full Pres release}

^{Source: TRAI, India}

Mobile coverage in country parks has been further improved with the launch of a new base station at Long Ke today ( 12 August 2007 ), bringing the total number of base stations in country parks to 13. With three more mobile base stations under construction and scheduled to be completed later this year, the mobile coverage in Sai Kung, southern Lantau and Tai Lam Chung will be further enhanced.

"As one of its on-going initiatives, the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) continues to facilitate and coordinate with the mobile network operators to establish new mobile base stations in the country parks. Thanks to the effort of the industry, the mobile coverage in the country parks has been significantly improved in recent years. On this particular occasion we would like to thank China Mobile Peoples Telephone Company Limited for taking a lead in the construction of the new base station at Long Ke as well as Smartone 3G Limited for joining the project. Other operators will also soon join the project," a spokesperson of OFTA said today. Full Press release

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority ("OFTA") today (10 August 2007) issued the following press statement in response to the publication of a new Unified Interconnection and Local Access Service ("UILAS") tariff by PCCW-HKT Telephone Limited ("PCCW") in the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Gazette No.32 Vol.11:

"In filing the tariff with the Telecommunications Authority ("TA"), PCCW has indicated that the existing Fixed-Mobile Interconnection Charge ("FMIC"), Local Access Charge ("LAC") as well as existing agreements between PCCW and other fixed telecommunications operators in relation to the Fixed-Fixed Interconnection Charge ("FFIC"), will remain in full force and effect without any change whatsoever. Furthermore, PCCW has indicated that Mobile Network Operators, Fixed Network Operators, External Telecommunications Service Operators and other licensees may continue to enjoy the current interconnection services from PCCW pursuant to those tariffs and agreements. Full Press release

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

Senior ICT policy makers and regulators from developing countries gathered in Singapore from 30 July to 3 August 2007 to attend a five-day executive programme on information and communication technology (ICT) development, entitled "Enabling Frameworks for ICT Development — The Singapore Experience".

The programme, offered by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) in collaboration with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), provided an opportunity for participants from Asia Pacific, Africa and Arab States to study and analyse Singapore’s model as a means to catalyse ICT progress in their own countries. The participating countries included Bhutan, Brunei, Kenya, Kiribati, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Viet Nam.

This follows an agreement reached between ITU and IDA in June 2007 to provide a training programme for senior ICT and telecom officials that would foster the development of ICT frameworks in their countries to enable fair, effective and sustainable competition in a multi-operator, multi-network environment. The Executive Training Programme is one example of action taken to implement the ITU Regional Initiative on Telecommunication/ICT Policy and Regulatory Cooperation in the Asia Pacific Region, which was adopted by the 4th World Telecommunication Development Conference held in Doha, Qatar in 2006. (More information on the Training Programme)

ITU Press release.

Incorporated owners and building managers are advised by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority ("OFTA") to check and, if necessary, upgrade their In-building Coaxial Cable Distribution Systems ("IBCCDS") for reception of Digital Terrestrial Television ("DTT") signals, if their buildings are located in the initial coverage area of DTT broadcasting, which will be launched later this year.

According to the implementation framework earlier announced by the Government, Asia Television Limited ("ATV") and Television Broadcasts Limited ("TVB") shall start simulcasting of both DTT and analogue TV programmes by the end of 2007. At service launch, ATV and TVB's DTT service will be transmitted by the main transmission station at Temple Hill and it will cover the Kowloon peninsula, northern Hong Kong Island, Shatin and eastern Lantau Island. Full Press release

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

New Delhi, 24th July 2007 - TRAI has today released a consultation paper on Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS). HITS is a satellite based delivery platform for delivering multi channel television signals to cable operators across the country. It is capable of delivering TV signals in digital form with addressability feature. The HITS operator uplinks signals of TV channels of different broadcasters to his HITS satellite in the sky. The cable operators across the country then downlink these TV channels from this HITS satellite for further distribution to the subscribers through their cable network in digital form.

Source: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India

 

New Delhi, 13 July, 2007- Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has been closely monitoring the performance of Service Providers against the Quality of Service (QoS) benchmarks through Quarterly Performance Monitoring Reports (PMRs) received from the service providers. The analysis of the PMRs indicates that some of the service providers are not meeting the quality of service benchmarks in respect of some of the QoS parameters. Apart from monitoring of the Quality of Service through Quarterly Performance Monitoring Reports, TRAI also undertakes objective assessment of the Quality of Service of Basic and Cellular Mobile Services through an independent agency. Based on the analysis of performance monitoring reports of service providers and report submitted by independent agency for the four quarters in the year 2006-07, service providers were informed in June, 2007 by TRAI about shortfall in achieving certain benchmarks of quality of service parameters specified in the regulation on Quality of Service of Basic and Cellular Mobile Telephone Services, 2005 (11 of 2005).

Source: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, India

New Delhi, 15^th June, 2007- Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released a regulation called “Telecommunication Consumers Education and Protection Fund Regulations, 2007”.

 

2. As per the regulation, a Telecommunication Consumers Education and Protection Fund shall be established by the TRAI for the telecom consumers’ awareness, education and for protection of their interests. Telecom Service Providers, who may have charged their subscribers any amount in excess of the rates of telecommunication service determined under any regulation or order or direction made under the TRAI Act, or amount in excess of the rates announced by the service providers where the rates have been notified under market forbearance, which could not be refunded to the concerned subscribers and thus lying as unclaimed with the service providers, shall transfer the excess amount so collected to the credit of the Telecommunication Consumers Education and Protection Fund. The said amount shall be transferred within a period of thirty days after being so directed by the TRAI and in case where no direction has been issued by the TRAI within a period of thirty days after the expiry of 12 months from the date on which such amount became due for refund or after expiry of period of limitation specified under any law. It is estimated that various telecom companies have approximately Rs.10 crore undisbursed amount accumulated over last ten years.

 

3. It is pertinent to note that refunds to a large number of consumers of different service providers became due under various Directions or Orders issued by the Authority from time to time, but a significant amount of these excess moneys could not be refunded to the consumers for different reasons by the concerned service providers and accordingly, such sums of moneys are lying with the service providers in separately earmarked accounts. The retention of such excess charged moneys, which actually belong to the consumers, by the service providers would amount to undue or unjust enrichment and, therefore, these moneys are required to be ploughed by an institutionalised mechanism for utilising such moneys for activities aimed at promotion of telecommunication consumer’s education and protection.

 

4. It has been provided in the regulation that only the income from such amount credited to the corpus of the Telecommunication Consumers Education and Protection Fund shall be utilised for consumers’ education and protection. However, as the generation of income by way of interest may take some time and, in the mean time to undertake activities related to telecommunication consumers’ education and protection, it has been provided that during the initial period of 18 months a small portion limited to five per cent of the initial corpus of the Telecommunication Consumers Education and Protection Fund shall be utilized for said purposes.

 

5. All expenditure from the Telecommunication Consumers Education and Protection Fund shall be incurred on the recommendations of the committee constituted under these regulations which, inter alia, consist of the representatives of the service providers and the consumers’ organizations to ensure transparency. The expenditure shall be incurred for the following purposes:-

(a) to undertake programmes to educate the consumers of the Telecommunication services about various measures taken by the Central Government or TRAI for protecting the interests of consumers of telecommunication services;

(b) to conduct studies and market research projects, either directly or through specialized agencies or institutions on matters relating to protection of the interests of consumers of telecommunication services;

(c) to organize seminars, symposia and workshops on the subject of consumer welfare and consumer education in the field of telecommunication.

 

6. The regulations provide that no amount in respect of which a claim has been filed before any court of law, tribunal or consumer forum or in respect of which an order has been made by any court of law, tribunal or consumer forum shall be transferred to the Fund. The regulations further provide that any person, becoming entitled to refund of any amount in pursuance of an order made by a Consumer Forum under the Consumer Protection Act,1986 or by any court or tribunal, subsequent to the transfer of such amount to the Telecommunication Consumers Education and Protection Fund shall be paid such amount by the service provider in accordance with the order made under that Act or the court or tribunal, as the case may be, and the service provider may apply to the Authority for reimbursement of such amount.

 

7. The Authority expects that the measures for the consumers’ education and their protection as envisaged in the regulation would:

(i) create awareness among the telecommunication consumers in different parts of India in respect of their rights;

(ii) eventually reduce the amount which may remain unclaimed in future by such consumers;

(iii) educate them regarding latest development in the telecommunication sector and telecom laws and steps taken by the Authority and Central Government to protect and promote the interests of the telecommunication consumers; and

(iv) also prevent the avoidable events of excess charging of rates by the service providers at times which is often unintentional due to fast changes taking place in the telecommunication sector and other reasons.

Full text of the “Telecommunication Consumers Education and Protection Fund Regulations, 2007 (6 of 2007)” is available on TRAI’s website: www.trai.gov.in

Source: TRAI, India

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To keep pace with the market developments, the Telecommunications Authority (TA) today (8 June 2007) announced his decisions to update the existing universal service arrangements.

After considering the submissions in response to the consultation paper of "Review of the Regulatory Framework for Universal Service Arrangement" issued on 28 December 2006, the TA issued a Statement today to conclude the review. The existing universal service arrangements were put in place in 1998. PCCW-HKT Telephone Ltd. (PCCW), the only universal service provider, has been compensated under the Universal Service Contribution (USC) scheme for the net cost of providing universal service to unprofitable customers. At present, the compensation is shared by telecommunications service providers who provide external telecommunications services (commonly known as International Direct Dialling (IDD) services) on the basis of the traffic volume handled.

"The TA agrees with the majority of the respondents to the consultation that the universal service arrangements should be maintained so that affordable basic telephone service will continue to be available to all members of the public," a spokesperson of the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) said.

"However, the market landscape has undergone massive changes since 1998. Competitors of PCCW have rolled out customer access networks to connect directly their customers. More than 76% of households are accommodated in buildings connected by at least one alternative access network constructed by PCCW’s competitors. PCCW’s competitors are competing with PCCW in these buildings. To be fair to the competitors of PCCW, PCCW should no longer receive subsidy in the form of USC in those buildings connected by alternative access networks," continued the spokesperson.

"The TA also updated the methodology for the calculation of the universal service cost. For example, the net cost of providing universal service should not be calculated on an individual customer basis. The net cost of serving all customers connected by the same distribution point should be considered instead," the spokesperson elaborated.

The above changes to the existing universal service arrangements will take effect from 1 July 2007.

"Regarding the funding arrangement, the existing mechanism of sharing the cost of providing universal service on the basis of IDD traffic volume will gradually become unsustainable as more and more traffic will be routed through IP-based networks. The TA decides that the status quo will remain until the end of April 2009, when the fixed-mobile interconnection charge is deregulated and the new funding arrangement will be based on the quantity of telephone numbers allocated," the spokesperson added.

The TA Statement, which is entitled "Review of the Regulatory Framework for Universal Service Arrangements", can be downloaded from OFTA's website at www.ofta.gov.hk .

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

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New Delhi, 07 June, 2007- Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released Regulation on " International Telecommunication Access to Essential Facilities at Cable Landing Stations Regulations, 2007" which provides for the non-discriminatory, fair and open access at the cable landing stations.

A number of submarine cables are landing or terminating in India. These submarine cables terminate at cable landing stations operated and managed by few ILDOs. As such the facilities are predominantly owned by limited number of ILDOs. TRAI considers that access to these cable landing stations by other licensees is necessary for creating a conducive environment and boosting competition in the international bandwidth connectivity / leased circuits segment.

Access to submarine Cable Landing Stations (CLS) is considered an essential input for many telecom services needing international connectivity. Any access barriers to such facility can constrain the competitiveness of telecom operators and become detrimental to healthy growth of international telecom market. Thus for the CLS, which are considered to be essential and critical telecom facilities, it needs to be ensured that any restriction on such facilities should not become a ‘bottleneck’ to international telecom services provision. In pursuance of the recommendations on "Measures to promote competition in International Private Leased Circuits (IPLC) in India", the Department of Telecommunications, after accepting the recommendations, has also amended the relevant clauses in International Long Distance (ILD) Service Licence to ensure efficient, transparent and non-discriminatory access facilities for submarine cables at Cable Landing Stations.

International leased circuits are used by exporters, BPO units/ Call centers, banks, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), ISPs and other information technology enabled service providers. In addition, ILDOs also require international bandwidth connectivity for carrying international voice calls. The Regulation would facilitate:

• provisioning of bandwidth to end consumers at competitive rates;

• boosting of competition and therefore reduction in the price of international private leased circuits (IPLCs);

• availability of International bandwidth at competitive price to ISPs for rapid growth of Broadband Service;

• options to ILDOs to purchase International bandwidth at competitive prices on a range of diversified submarine cables;

• carriage of voice/data at a competitive cost.

The owners of Cable Landing Stations are mandated, from the date of commencement of the Regulation, to submit "Cable Landing Station – Reference Interconnect Offer (CLS-RIO)" containing the terms and conditions of Access Facilitation and Co-location facilities including landing facilities at cable landing stations for International submarine cable capacity in accordance with the specified schedule and provisions in the Regulation within 30 days to the Authority for its approval. The Authority shall approve the CLS – RIO within 60 days. However, if it requires modifications so as to protect the interests of service providers or consumers or to promote orderly growth of the telecom, the Authority will give an opportunity to the owner of Cable Landing Station (CLS) to make necessary modifications and submit within 15 days of receipt of requirement for such modifications in the CLS-RIO for the approval. The owner of CLS shall publish the approved CLS-RIO within 15 days from the date of approval by the Authority. The Regulation would enable the timely provision of International bandwidth connectivity at cable landing stations in a fair, equitable, transparent and non discriminatory manner to eligible International Telecommunication Entities i.e. International Long Distance Operators (ILDOs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with International Gateway permission.

The Regulation provides the time limits for owner of Cable Landing Station for various activities in access facilitation including the provision for co-location facility and the Regulation also provides the time limits for eligible Indian International Telecom Entity to enter into agreement, make payments and arrange backhaul circuits to its premises from Cable Landing Station. The Regulation has a provision for a minimum commitment period of three years for Co-location facility and its renewal till the term of lease of International capacity on submarine cable at cable landing station subject to no default and breach by eligible Indian International Telecom Entity.

The Authority is of the view that there is a need for standard/published access facilitation agreement, which the new service providers can make use of for availing of access to international submarine cable capacity. In the absence of such regulation, there is a scope for delay, in provisioning of access to the capacity acquired by the competing operators, from incumbent International Long Distance Operator (ILDO) and other ILDOs with Significant Market Power (SMP) who own cable landing stations. The Authority also noted that problems have been faced by

some of the ILDOs, who had acquired capacity in a submarine cable system from foreign carriers or International Telecom carriers, desired to access such capacity at the cable landing station of an existing operator.

The highlights of Regulation are:

(a) new service providers have access to the International bandwidth capacity in the same way as the consortium members;

(b) access facilitation is not unduly delayed by consortium members having control over CLS;

(c) transparent and non-discriminatory access at cable landing stations;

(d) well defined responsibilities in terms of functioning;

(e) transparent charges for access, Co-location and landing facilities;

(f) time limit for provision of access, Co-location and landing facilities.

Full text of the "International Telecommunication Access to Essential Facilities at Cable Landing Stations Regulations, 2007 (5 of 2007)" is available on TRAI’s website: www.trai.gov.in

Source: TRAI, India

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Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (the Authority) has today issued "Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communications Regulations, 2007", for putting in place a mechanism for curbing the unwanted telemarketing calls. The Regulation has been made effective with its publication.

�� Proposal to have National Do Not Call Registry (NDNC registry) containing list of telephone numbers of the subscribers who do not want to receive Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC). It include SMS as well.

�� DoT authorizes National Informatics Center (NIC) for installation, operation and maintenance of NDNC registry.

�� The NDNC to be established in 3 months time by NIC.

�� After the establishment of NDNC registry, Telephone subscriber (Landline or cellular) who does not wish to receive UCC can register their telephone number with their telecom service provider for inclusion in the NDNC.

�� The telemarketer will have to verify their calling telephone numbers list with the NDNC registry before making a call.

�� Telemarketer will have to register with NDNC Registry to avail the facility of scrubbing their calling list.

�� An amount of Rs 500/- per call / message has been prescribed to discourage telemarketers who makes calls to numbers registered in Do Not Call list. TRAI issued Telecom Tariff Order (Forty-Fifth amendment) 2007 today notifying tariff of Rs. 500/- for each such Unsolicited Commercial Communication.

�� The defaulter telemarketer will face disconnection of telecom service.

Earlier the Authority had sent its recommendations to Department of Telecom (DOT) for authorizing NIC for designing and establishing the National Do Not Call Registry and formulating guidelines for Telemarketers etc. The Authority has notified the Regulation today.

In the Regulation the Unsolicited Commercial Calls has been defined as "any message, through telecommunications service, which is transmitted for the purpose of informing about, or soliciting or promoting any commercial transaction in relation to goods, investments or services which a subscriber opts not to receive, but, does not include, ----

(i) any message (other than promotional message) relating to a service or financial transaction under a specific contract between the parties to such contract; or

(ii) any messages relating to charities, national campaigns or natural calamities transmitted on the directions of the Government or agencies authorized by it for the said purpose;

(iii) messages transmitted, on the directions of the Government or any authority or agency authorized by it, in the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality

Through this Regulation, the Authority has facilitated setting up of a national database, containing list of telephone numbers of all such subscribers who do not want to receive the UCC. This database will be called National Do Not Call Registry (NDNC). NIC has been contracted to design and maintain the NDNC. The telecom service providers will set up the call centers with "toll free telephone lines" to receive request from their subscribers who want to register in the NDNC. The service providers will periodically update the NDNC online and thus the NDNC will have the telephone numbers of all the subscribers from all over India who have opted not to receive any UCC. In the Regulation, maximum of 45 days have been given from the date of registration of request by a subscriber to inclusion of his telephone number in the NDNC. Telemarketers will have to register in the NDNC registry. The telemarketers would make online request by submitting the calling list to the NDNC registry and the registry will return the list of Do Not Call numbers to the requested telemarketer.

The DoT has formulated separate guidelines for "Telemarketers". All the agencies making voice calls or sending SMSs for marketing of products, including those content providers who offer various services through SMS and voice using short codes fall in the category of telemarketers and such telemarketers are required to register with DOT.In its Regulation, the Authority has mandated the Telemarketers to register themselves with the Department of Telecommunications, within three months of issue of the guidelines for Telemarketers by Department of Telecommunications. Otherwise, their telecom services may face disconnection. With a view of avoiding any disruption in the

telemarketing activity, the scheme also envisages provisional registration of the telemarketers at the level of telecom service providers.

As majority of the telemarketers are being employed by the Banking Sector, the Authority has also approached the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) to ensure that no telemarketers are engaged by the Banking Sector without valid registration certificate issued from DoT and also requested them to ensure that all the telemarketers presently engaged by the banks should register themselves with DoT as ‘Telemarketer’ within three months. The RBI has extended full support for this scheme.

To tackle the issue of violation of the Regulation by Telemarketers, the regulation has the following key provisions:

�� Originating Access Provider to whom the complaint has been forwarded will examine and warn the guilty telemarketer /customer for the first time.

�� If the UCC is repeated by the same telemarketer for the second time, his service provider shall charge a higher tariff. The Authority has provided for a special tariff on per call basis, which is Rs.500/-. The Authority through Telecom Tariff Order (Forty-Fifth amendment) 2007 today notified tariff of Rs. 500/- for such Unsolicited Commercial Communication.

�� The Telecom Service Providers have been directed to disconnect telephones connections of telemarketer if sending of such Unsolicited Commercial Communication is repeated.

The full text of `The Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communications Regulations, 2007’ and `Telecommunication Tariff (Forty-fifth Amendment) order’ are available on TRAI’s website: www.trai.gov.in.

Source: TRAI, India

Japan’s telecoms regulator, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), plans to extend rules governing the provision of internet protocol (IP) telephony services in the wake of a major 3.5-hour blackout which left thousands of fibre-optic customers without a service last month. Under current rules, VoIP service providers are only required to notify the MIC of any problems when 30,000 or more customers are unable to access their IP line for two hours or more. However, following last month’s outage in which NTT East and NTT West fibre-optic equipment froze 3.18 million customers’ circuits, the MIC now wants to extend rules to compel operators to report even minor glitches. The watchdog plans to amend the relevant ordinances this year to redress the loophole of current legislation not addressing areas such as difficulty in connecting to other phones via the internet, or delays in receiving e-mails via the web.

Source : TeleGeography

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The Telecommunications Authority (TA) today (4 June 2007) announced the adoption of the National Standard as the technical standard for the digital terrestrial television (DTT) service in Hong Kong.

"The Government has adopted a market-led approach which allows the free-to-air television broadcasters, namely Asia Television Limited (ATV) and Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB), to propose the DTT technical standard of their choice for assessment by the TA. The two broadcasters unanimously indicated their preference for the National Standard. After considering their proposals and having regard to the satisfactory outcome of the laboratory tests and field trials with the proposed standard, the TA has decided to adopt the National Standard as the transmission standard for DTT in Hong Kong," a spokesperson of the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) said.

Following the adoption of DTT transmission standard, the TA will publish the technical specification for DTT receivers within this month so that manufacturers will be able to produce and supply the appropriate DTT set-top boxes and integrated TV sets (DTT receivers) for the Hong Kong market.

"The receiver specification, which will consist of a basic-tier and a higher-tier, is to cater for the different business plans of the two broadcasters and the versatile needs of consumers," said the spokesperson.

The basic-tier receivers will allow consumers to receive the four existing local free-to-air television programme channels transmitted in digital format. The higher-tier receivers will allow consumers to enjoy all DTT programmes, including new programmmes and high-definition television (HDTV) programmes.

According to the stipulation of the Government, two broadcasters shall simulcast both digital and analogue terrestrial television before the end of 2007.

"By that time, members of the public can still enjoy the analogue television programmes and satellite television programmes without the need of any additional equipment. If members of the public would like to receive the new DTT programmes, they will need to procure DTT receivers in compliance with the specification set out for the Hong Kong market. As to management offices / incorporated owners of multi-storey buildings, they will need to upgrade their communal aerial broadcast distribution systems so that the DTT service is receivable by individual residents of the buildings. OFTA will, via a variety of channels, remind the building management offices / incorporated owners to upgrade their aerial systems before the launch of DTT service," said OFTA's spokesperson.

"No DTT receivers are available in the market yet. Consumers who wish to receive the DTT programmes need not rush to buy receivers now. We expect that such receivers will gradually be available in the market for consumers' choice in the coming three to six months. DTT will be launched in phases and when DTT is first launched by end 2007, only 50% of Hong Kong will be covered by digital signals. Hence, consumers shall also check whether their residences are covered by DTT service and their aerial systems are able to receive such service before making the purchase decision," said OFTA's spokesperson.

"Existing television sets and displays currently on sale in the market can work with the future DTT set-top boxes. Those television sets which are high-definition ready (HD-ready) with a set-top box connected in future can enjoy HDTV services when DTT is launched. On the other hand, integrated TV sets (with built-in digital decoders) will be available at a later stage," the OFTA's spokesperson explained.

The Government and the broadcasters will mount publicity in relation to DTT and consumer tips for the purchase of DTT receivers nearer the time of the launch of DTT service. For further enquiries, members of the public may surf the Government's website for DTT (http://www.digitaltv.gov.hk) or call OFTA's hotline (2961 6333).

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

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The Office of the Telecommunications Authority ("OFTA") issued the following statement today (1 June 2007) in response to the judgement handed down by the court in connection with the judicial review applied by PCCW-HKT Telephone Limited ("PCCW") on the Telecommunications Authority's ("TA") direction dated 7 November 2006 (the "Direction"). The purpose of the Direction was to direct PCCW and Wharf T&T Limited ("WT&T") to effect interconnection so as to pass the Voice over Internet Protocol ("VoIP") traffic of a Service-Based Operator ("SBO") licensee connected to WT&T's network.

"We welcome the judgement handed down by the court today, which affirms the Telecommunications Authority's power to issue direction under section 36B of the Telecommunications Ordinance ("TO") to secure interconnection. With the legal effect of the direction clearly affirmed by the court, the obligations of licensees to observe and comply with the relevant licence conditions on interconnection and "any-to-any" connectivity are further entrenched. OFTA firmly believes that timely interconnection is crucial to new entrants to the market and the "any-to-any" connectivity requirement ensures customers on one network will be able to call the customers of another network without impediment."

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

Domestic home network related industry is actively going global, since domestic home network is not very vitalized owing to the stagnation in domestic construction industry for years, and also new regulations, such as price ceilings for first-sale homes and opening the price for the public, which will start to take effect from September.

Samsung Electronics recently started to boost its oversea marketing by establishing home network office in Kazakhstan, placing CIS in the center. Especially, the company sent its core human resources such as Director Kim Jin-An to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan trying to contact both governments and Kazakh Telecom and Uzbek Telecom.

Recently, in CIS countries, such as Kazakhstan, there is overflow of oil money. As the capital comes into construction industry, the rear industry home network is also growing," said a Samsung Electronics Official.

Having taken up 10% of entire sales revenue last year, Hyundai Telecommunication Co., Ltd (CEO Lee Nae-Heun) is also trying to penetrate global market with major domestic construction companies such as WOOLIM CONSTRUCTION.

Hyundai Telecommunication completed the home network construction for 700 households of Woolim Apple Town in Kazakhstan early this year, and succeeded to sell all households. The company is strengthening the local marketing in order to close a home network construction deal on the rest 2,300 households.

TEC WIZ HOME (CEO Choi Nak-Hoon) is supplying its own home network system to 120 households of studio apartment in New Zealand being constructed by Daeju Construction. The company is also working on a contract in luxury apartments and hotels in New York, Philippines and Singapore.

Commax (President and CEO Byun Bong-Duk) is providing its home network system to the world's tallest tower, 'the Burj Dubai', and extending its target to emerging countries in Arab as well as China and India. It is making the half of its entire sales abroad.

Meanwhile, the Korea Home Network Industry Association (President Nam Joong-Soo, CEO of KT Corp) sent a large IT mission consisting of twelve domestic home network companies, such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan for 6 days from 14th. Those companies had export consulting conference as well as exhibition for relevant products and solution.

Source: The Electronic Times, Korea

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day ceremony 
The Secretary-General announced that ITU, InfoDev and the World Bank are working on a Global Capacity Building Initiative for regulators to expand training opportunities for ICT policy-makers and regulators in developing countries, which will be launched at the Connect Africa event in October. This initiative will empower regulators with tools to establish an enabling environment to stimulate investment and innovation and build confidence in the telecommunications and ICT market.

Starting with Africa — and then expanding to other regions — the Global Capacity Building Initiative will build on the highly successful ICT Regulation Toolkit, which ITU and InfoDev launched in 2005 to improve access to training materials on key policy and regulatory issues in the ICT sector. See full press release.

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) today ( 11 May 2007 ) issued a consultation paper to invite public views on the proposed allocation of spectrum for the provision of broadband wireless access ("BWA") services.

BWA is a technology that supports high-speed wireless access to mobile user devices for voice, video, Internet access and other applications. BWA is also an alternative to the wireline technologies for access to buildings and individual customers at fixed locations. Some local fixed network operators have expressed interest to deploy BWA technologies in their customer access networks.

"User devices employing BWA technologies meeting open standards are expected to be commonly available in the market in the next couple of years. These technologies have the potential of supporting innovative services and offering more choices to users in the market. In order to maintain Hong Kong 's position as a telecommunications hub in the Asia Pacific region, OFTA sees it necessary to make available sufficient spectrum in a timely manner to address prospective market needs and to facilitate the introduction of new technologies and innovative services," a spokesperson of OFTA said.

"In this consultation, we have put forward specific proposals for the allocation of 2.3 GHz band for the deployment of BWA. We also seek feedback from interested parties to assess the potential demand for spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band so that consideration could be given to including such spectrum in the future assignment of spectrum. To be in line with the guiding principles under the Spectrum Policy Framework recently promulgated by the Government, we propose to assign the BWA spectrum using a market-based approach which is based on auction. The auction is planned to be conducted in 2008," the spokesperson said.

The industry and any interested parties are invited to submit views or comments on this consultation paper on or before 11 July 2007. Parties who are interested to invest in services operating in the spectrum concerned are also invited to express their intention to OFTA by the same deadline.

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

infoDev and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announce the beginning of work on the long-awaited universal access module of their collaborative online ICT Regulation Toolkit.

The module will develop a set of definitions for universal service and universal access that will cover the gamut from traditional telephony and mobile phones, to shared public facilities such as payphones, telecenters, and Internet access points in shops, post offices, libraries, and local government offices, to broadband and next-generation networks. It will also encompass the provision of access to underserved groups such as disabled users, women, youth, and indigenous peoples, as well as coverage in urban and rural environments, schools, health facilities, and other public services. The module will highlight the key role that regulatory reform plays in promoting universal access and will provide regulators with an array of both traditional and innovative tools and approaches that they can consider in formulating their own policies, including universal access funds, output-based aid targeted subsidies, incentives for infrastructure sharing, and authorization and interconnection for local operators. The module will be available in October 2007.

New Delhi, 4^th May, 2007- Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released Regulation on “Telecom Consumers Protection and Redressal of Grievances Regulations, 2007” which provides for the effective, speedy and inexpensive redressal of telecom consumers. As per this Regulation, Telecom Service Providers, who are providing Basic Telephone Service, Unified Access Services, Cellular Mobile Telephone Service and Broadband Service, including Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, are mandated, from the date of commencement of the Regulation, to establish Call Centres within 60 days, appoint or designate Nodal Officers for each area within one month, so that they are easily accessible and available to consumers for redressal of the grievances and also appoint one or more appellate authorities in each licensed service area within three months. Service providers are also mandated to publish “Manual of Practice for handling consumer complaints” which basically provides for consumer rights, obligation and resolution of grievances. TRAI also released a direction, regarding information to be included in the telephone bills issued to the consumers by the service providers, to be implemented with effect from 1^st August, 2007.

 

Source: TRAI, India

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority ("OFTA") commissioned the Social Science Research Centre of the University of Hong Kong to conduct a survey of residential broadband use in Hong Kong. The results of the survey published today (2 May 2007) show that broadband service users are generally satisfied with the services they are using but the information provided by Internet service providers is still inadequate to enable consumers to make informed choices of broadband services.

The survey was conducted in the second half of 2006. It is the first of its kind commissioned by OFTA to study the level of consumer awareness of broadband Internet access services and to identify any deficit in the availability of information to consumers in making informed choices in the market. The key findings of the survey are at the Annex.

"In order that consumers are able to make informed choices of broadband services, adequate relevant information about the services should be made available to them in a meaningful manner," a spokesperson of OFTA said.

The survey shows that some 87% of the respondents are satisfied with the broadband services they are using. Moreover, service reliability is the most significant factor that consumers would take into account while making their purchasing decisions. This factor is followed by download speed, quality of customer service, price and customer service hotline, in their descending order of importance.

"According to the survey results, while around 62% of the respondents consider that there is sufficient information available for the choice of broadband service providers, there are still 38% of the respondents who think that the information is inadequate. Consumers want unambiguous information about the price, transmission speed and quality of service of individual service providers," continued the spokesperson.

"The survey results also indicated that many problems encountered by residential broadband users were not connected with the service quality delivered by Internet service providers. The enjoyment of consumers in broadband services could be enhanced by more education on the use of computers and internet at home," the spokesperson added.

Based on the findings of the survey, OFTA will work with the industry and the Consumer Council on the initiatives to address the information need of consumers. OFTA has also initiated a dialogue with the Internet service providers on how they should make available the necessary information to consumers. OFTA is also developing a number of Best Practice Indicators concerning advertising and provision of pricing information to potential customers.

"The Best Practice Indicators, which will be established through consultation with the industry and the Consumer Council, aim to identify the potential problem areas where misleading or deceptive conduct may occur and to prevent consumers from being misled in choosing Internet service providers," the spokesperson explained.

Furthermore, OFTA will seek cooperation from the industry, the Consumer Council and other relevant government agencies on the feasibility of launching an education programme for the wider Hong Kong community about being smart information technology users in home.

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

The Telecommunications Authority ("TA") today (27 April 2007) announced his conclusions in the consultation on "Deregulation for Fixed-Mobile Convergence".

"With a dynamic market and technological developments, the distinction between fixed and mobile networks and services is becoming increasingly blurred. Under the market-driven approach which has been adopted by the Hong Kong Government for the telecommunications industry, Fixed Mobile Convergence ("FMC") or the extent or pace of it in Hong Kong should be properly determined by the market. The role of the TA is to ensure that the regulatory environment is conducive to the development of new technologies, products and services. Operators should be able to respond promptly to consumer demand for FMC or technological advances promoting FMC without unnecessary regulatory constraints" the spokesperson of the Office of the Telecommunications Authority ("OFTA") said.

"One of the conclusions of the review is that there should be withdrawal of the current regulatory guidance which assumes an approach of "Mobile Party's Network Pays" ("MPNP"). There will be a two-year transitional period to enable concerned operators to adapt to this change. The effect of this deregulation will be that the level of interconnection charge and payment arrangements will be a matter of commercial negotiations among the operators. However, the TA retains his statutory powers to make a determination on interconnection terms under section 36A of the Telecommunications Ordinance if agreement cannot be reached," the spokesperson elaborated.

Under the existing MPNP interconnection charging arrangement which resulted from regulatory guidance introduced in the 1980's, mobile network operators are required to pay interconnection charges in both directions to the fixed network operators. In other words, regardless of whether a mobile user calls a fixed user or vice versa, the interconnection charge is always borne by the mobile operator.

"The current local access charge ("LAC") arrangement for interconnection between external service providers and fixed/mobile network operators will be maintained. The TA will monitor whether the removal of the regulatory guidance on fixed-mobile interconnection charge ("FMIC") is likely to have the effect of making the origination or termination of external calls more competitive before considering whether to propose any further de-regulatory measures in relation to LAC," continued the spokesperson.

The TA also reviewed the feasibility of introducing Fixed Mobile Number Portability ("FMNP"). However, he concluded that a market survey should first be conducted to assess the consumer demand for FMNP before making any further proposal on its introduction in Hong Kong.

The TA will also recommend to the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology the introduction of a Unified Carrier Licence ("UCL") which can authorize the provision of fixed and mobile services under the same licence.

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

The Telecommunications Authority ("TA") today (27 April 2007) announced the plan to release spectrum through open auction to enable the provision of Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA2000) services in Hong Kong from November 2008.

The necessary subsidiary legislation will be tabled in the Legislative Council to impose spectrum utilisation fee on the use of the relevant spectrum and to prescribe the method of determining the spectrum utilisation fee by auction. The auction is expected to be held in the last quarter of 2007 after which the TA will grant one licence for use of the spectrum.

The CDMA2000 standard is one of the main mobile communications standards in the world that is capable of providing high-speed data services with data rates comparable to the existing 3G services available in Hong Kong.

"At present, mobile services based on the CDMA2000 standard are provided in 85 economies, including the US, Korea, Japan and the Mainland. Altogether, there are 325 million CDMA2000 subscribers worldwide. In the Mainland, there are over 30 million CDMA2000 subscribers. The licensing of a new mobile service using the CDMA2000 standard will contribute to the harmonization of popular mobile services with the Mainland as well as other parts of the world, thereby strengthening Hong Kong's strategic position as a world city and the gateway between the Mainland and the world," a spokesperson of the Office of the Telecommunications Authority ("OFTA") said.

"Any interested party, including incumbent fixed/mobile carriers, is welcome to bid for the spectrum. Details of the auction rules, including the reserve price, will be released nearer to the time of the auction," continued the spokesperson.

This will be the second spectrum auction held by the Government, following the first one held in 2001 for the deployment of spectrum in the 1.9 - 2.2 GHz band for the provision of the third-generation mobile services.

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

The Government today (April 24) announced the policy framework for the management of radio spectrum in Hong Kong, after taking into consideration the views collected during a public consultation exercise.

The policy framework covers six areas, namely spectrum policy objectives; guiding principles in spectrum management; spectrum rights; spectrum supply (including spectrum trading and liberalisation); spectrum for government services and spectrum pricing.

Among the spectrum policy objectives, a new objective is to strengthen Hong Kong's strategic position as a world city and the gateway between the Mainland and the world. This is considered particularly important in the light of increasing economic integration between Hong Kong and the Mainland.

The framework also sets out clearly the guiding principle in spectrum management that a market-based approach should be used for spectrum when there are likely to be competing demands from providers of non-government services. If there are overriding public policy reasons requiring a departure from this guiding principle, the relevant public policy reasons will be published for transparency.

To provide certainty to spectrum assignees, the framework states that before a spectrum assignment expires, the Telecommunications Authority (TA) will normally invoke his powers under the Telecommunications Ordinance (Cap 106) to vary or withdraw any spectrum assigned only in exceptional circumstances, including where the public interest or international obligations of the Government so require, there is a serious breach of spectrum assignment conditions or serious interference between legitimate spectrum users has to be resolved or minimised. The TA may set out minimum notice periods for different types of spectrum assignments, which he will give as far as practicable to the affected spectrum assignees. Upon the expiry of a spectrum assignment, if the TA intends to vary that assignment or not to renew that assignment, the TA will, as far as practicable, also give minimum notice periods.

To provide more information to the industry on the potential supply of spectrum to the market, the TA will publish spectrum release plans showing the potential supply of spectrum through an open, competitive bidding or tendering process in the following three years. Such plans will be updated every year on a rolling basis or as necessary.

The framework makes clear the policy intention that spectrum trading should be introduced in Hong Kong in the long term, subject to a feasibility study on the implementation issues. However, because of doubtful benefit in Hong Kong's circumstances, spectrum liberalisation will not be introduced in the short term.

While spectrum for government services will continue to be managed administratively, the TA will review the efficiency of the use of those spectrum every three years.

Since spectrum is a scarce public resource, the framework establishes the principle that spectrum utilisation fee (SUF) should be applicable to all non-government use of spectrum. Where spectrum is not released through market means, the SUF should be set to reflect the opportunity costs of the spectrum. However, if spectrum is assigned to support public interest purposes, the SUF may be adjusted accordingly.

The Deputy Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology (Communications and Technology), Mrs Marion Lai, said that the policy framework would provide the communications industry with greater clarity and predictability of spectrum management decisions, and provide policy guidance for the regulator in making regulatory decision.

"The framework will be reviewed and updated from time to time to reflect the latest technological, market and societal developments in Hong Kong and internationally, as well as further deliberations in key issues related to spectrum policy and management.

"To allow time to align the existing spectrum management arrangements with the new policy framework, in the interim, the TA would continue to discharge his spectrum management responsibilities under the TO with a mix of the existing command and control approach and the new market-based approach," Mrs Lai said.

The spectrum policy framework is available at the website of the Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau (www.citb.gov.hk/ctb) and Office of the Telecommunications Authority (www.ofta.gov.hk)

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

On April 23, an IT Ministerial Meeting was held between Minister Rho Jun-Hyong of Information and Communication and Minister Ali Abbasov of Communications and Information Technologies of the Azerbaijan Republic, who is accompanying President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on his state visit to Korea. The two Ministers discussed ways to cooperate in the field of IT.

Areas of IT cooperation took shape as the two IT Ministers signed an MOU to cooperate in the field of e-Government formulation in the presence of President Roh Moo-Hyun and President Ilham Aliyev, following the summit meeting.

The conclusion of the MOU is expected to spur active exchanges and cooperation between Korea and Azerbaijan through the formation of an inter-governmental working level committee to collaborate in areas which include e-Government formulation, maintenance, and development; standardization and certification in the field of e-Government; information security and Public Key Infrastructure(PKI); and national identification system, as well as by promoting exchange visits of experts, and jointly holding technical exhibitions, seminars, and symposia.

Meanwhile, with an aim to assist the Azerbaijan government’s e-Government project and to facilitate the efforts of Korean IT service firms to enter the Central Asian market, in December of last year, Korea completed supporting a pre-feasibility test on Azerbaijan’s e-Government formulation project, which includes areas such as national identification system, digital signature, and e-Customs.

Source: MIC, Korea

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (the Authority) has today released its approved final Regulation, for putting in place a mechanism for reducing the unwanted telemarketing calls. However the Authority would declare it effective only after some of the specific provisions not strictly in the domain of TRAI would get clearance from the Ministry of Communication and IT and Reserve Bank of India. Terming these unwanted calls as Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC), the Authority has proposed setting up of a National Do Not Call (NDNC) Registry, which will be a national database containing telephone numbers of the subscribers, who have opted not to receive UCC.

In its Regulation the Authority has mandated the telecom service providers to set up a mechanism to receive request from the subscribers who do not want to receive UCC. The service providers will maintain a Private Do Not Call List, which will include telephone numbers and other details of all such subscribers. The telephone numbers and the area code from this Private Do Not Call List will be updated online by the operators to a National Do Not Call Registry (NDNC) and thus the NDNC will have the telephone numbers of all the subscribers from all over India who have opted not to receive any UCC. Telemarketers who have been categorized as Other Service Providers (OSPs) will have to register in the NDNC Registry. The telemarketers would submit online the calling list to the NDNC registry where the list will be scrubbed by excluding the numbers listed in the registry and the scrubbed list will be online transferred back to the telemarketer for making calls.

The Authority has approached DoT to authorize the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Dept. of Information Technology, Govt. of India for taking up the work of designing, installation, operation and maintenance of the National DNC Registry. The expenditure for setting up and maintenance of the NDNC Registry will be borne by the Authority.

In the guidelines on Other Service Providers issued by DoT, the telemarketers have been categorized as Other Service Providers (OSPs). DoT has also made it mandatory for the Telecom Service Providers to check valid registration certificate issued from DoT to the OSPs before providing them any kind of telecom connectivity.

In its Regulation, the Authority has mandated the Telemarketers/ Other Service Providers to register themselves with the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of India within three

months of commencement of these Regulations; otherwise, their telecom services may face disconnection. Existing OSPs who have already registered with DOT may not require fresh registration.

As majority of the telemarketers are being employed by the Banking Sector, the Authority has also approached the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) to ensure that no telemarketers are engaged by the Banking Sector without valid registration certificate issued from DoT and also all the telemarketers presently engaged by the banks should register themselves with DoT as OSPs within three months; otherwise, their telecom services may face disconnection. In order to identify the telemarketers, the Authority has also requested both RBI and IBA to prepare a list of telemarketers presently engaged by different Banks along with the telephone numbers being used by them for making telemarketing calls and submit the same to the Authority within a month.

In its communication to DoT, the Authority has also sought for modification in license conditions of the Telecom Service Providers and in the guidelines for OSPs so as to bring them under the ambit of the new Regulations. To tackle the issue of violation of the Regulation, the Authority, appreciating the processing time before imposing penalty, has provided for a special tariff on per call basis, which will be higher than the normal tariff. It is likely to be Rs.500 – 1000 per call. On receipt of a complaint from a subscriber who has received commercial call, though his number is registered in the NDNC Registry, the Telecom Service Provider of the guilty telemarketer (subscriber) will be empowered to charge the higher tariff from the telemarketer who has made the call. The Authority through a separate Telecom Tariff Order will notify the amount that will be charged through this higher tariff. If a Telemarketer violates the Regulation for third time, the Telecom Service Providers will be empowered to disconnect his telephones connections.

The Authority feels that for effectively and successfully tackling the issue through this Regulation, cooperation from all the stakeholders including DoT, RBI, IBA, Telecom Service Providers, Telemarketers and the subscribers is required. This Regulation can only become effective after the DOT recognizes NIC as the agency to set up and maintain the NDNC and also implement the proposed modifications in the license conditions of the Telecom Service Providers and in the guidelines for OSPs.

Source: TRAI, India

State-owned MobiFone, Vietnam's second-largest mobile phone operator by subscribers, is seeking a foreign financial adviser to help its privatization, company Director Le Ngoc Minh said Wednesday.

"We will soon issue an official document to invite foreign companies to attend an international tender to provide consultation for our share-selling process in the coming months," Minh said.

Foreign companies have to send their applications to MobiFone by May 16, Minh told Dow Jones Newswires in Hanoi.

He gave no further details about the share sale. (…)

Source: cellular-news.com. 

The report of the 7th annual Global Symposium for Regulators is now available. ITU’s 7th annual Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR), held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates from 5-7 February 2007, attracted 471 participants, bringing together regulators, policy makers and service providers from 111 countries to identify best practice guidelines that promote regulatory frameworks that foster innovation, investment and affordable access to Next-Generation Networks (NGN) and that facilitate the migration to NGN. The GSR, organized by ITU in collaboration with the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the United Arab Emirates, was chaired by Mr Al Ghanim, Director General of the TRA. The focus of this year’s meeting was the road to next-generation networks: can regulators promote investment and achieve open access? The meeting examined pressing regulatory issues such as NGN investment, competition, interconnection, consumer protection, universal access and international internet interconnection. The first day was open to regulators, policy makers, ITU-D Sector Members and other invited guests. The second and third day was reserved for regulators and policy makers. The 2007 GSR also introduced a new feature, Speed Exchanges, to provide additional opportunities for participants to meet informally and exchange views. A series of nine informal, moderated roundtable discussions was offered, each on a different issue, and participants were invited to spend twenty minutes at the table of their choice before moving to another roundtable discussion. As in the previous GSRs, consensus was reached on an output document, the Best Practice Guidelines for Next-Generation Network (NGNs) Migration. The document was widely consulted and expresses the view of the National Regulatory Authorities (NRA) participating in the GSR that an enabling regulatory regime can foster innovation, investment and affordable access to NGNs and facilitate migration to NGNs. This enabling regime includes, inter alia: • the establishment of an effective regulator separated from the operator; • the adoption of clear and transparent regulatory processes; • regulatory flexibility and technology neutrality to permit technological innovation; • the creation of regulatory certainty for both incumbent and competing/alternative providers in order not to stifle innovation; and • regular reassessments of the framework in order to remove undue regulatory barriers to competition and innovation as well as to allow the framework to evolve with the objective of enabling users and providers to migrate to succeeding generations of networks when the market dictates. Regulators are also urged to adopt investment friendly regulation considered of paramount importance for the success of NGN deployment, while maintaining a level playing field and protecting consumer interests. Because the deployment of NGN will not happen overnight, the best practices encourage regulators to define policies that allow for the co-existence of legacy and IP networks, alternative voice services such as VoIP, and bundled services that provide voice together with TV and Internet access (also called triple play). In doing so, regulators are to consider applying the same rules to all operators and providers of telephony services irrespective of how they are delivered to consumers, under the symmetrical regulatory approach. The best practice guidelines cover all aspects of service provision including authorization, access, interconnection and interoperability, numbering and NGN identification systems, universal access, quality of service, consumer awareness, security and protection. The full report is available here:http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/Events/Seminars/GSR/GSR07/index.html/

New Delhi, 13 April, 2007- Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released Consultation Paper - "Access to Essential Facilities (including Landing Facilities for Submarine Cables) at Cable Landing Stations" along-with draft regulation which mandates the non-discriminatory, fair and open access at the cable landing stations. Accordingly, owners of Cable Landing Stations will have to publish the "Cable Landing Station – Reference Interconnect Offer" after approval by TRAI.

Cable Landing Station - Reference Interconnect Offer shall contain the terms and conditions for access facilitation, charges and time limit for various activities in such facilitation including the provisions for co-location facility. Proposed regulation would enable the timely provision of International bandwidth connectivity at cable landing stations in a fair, equitable, transparent and non discriminatory manner to International Telecommunication Entities i.e. International Long Distance Operators (ILDOs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with International Gateway permission.

A number of submarine cables are landing or terminating in India. These submarine cables terminate at cable landing stations operated and managed by few ILDOs. As such the facilities are predominantly owned by only few ILDOs. TRAI believes that access to these cable landing stations by other licensees is necessary for creating a conducive environment and boosting competition in the international bandwidth connectivity / leased circuits segment.

Access to submarine Cable Landing Stations (CLS) is considered an essential input for many telecom services needing international connectivity. Any access barriers to such facility can constrain the competitiveness of telecom operators and become detrimental to healthy growth of international telecom market.

Thus for the CLS, which are considered to be essential and critical telecom facilities, it needs to be ensured that any restriction on such facilities should not become a ‘bottleneck’ to international telecom service provision. Accordingly, TRAI had made recommendations to the Department of Telecommunications on "Measures to promote competition in International Private Leased Circuits (IPLC) in India" in December, 2005. The recommendation was accepted by the Department of Telecommunications. The licensor has also amended the relevant clauses in International Long Distance (ILD) Service Licence to ensure efficient, transparent and non-discriminatory access facilities for submarine cables at Cable Landing Stations (CLS).

The Authority felt that there is a need for standard/published access facilitation agreement, which the new service providers can make use of for availing of access to international submarine cable capacity. In the absence of such regulation, there is a scope for delay, in provisioning of access to the capacity acquired by the competing operators, from incumbent ILDO and other ILDOs with Significant Market Power (SMP) who own cable landing stations. Problems are being faced by operators, who have acquired capacity in a submarine cable system from foreign carriers or International Telecom carriers, wishing to access such capacity at the cable landing station of an existing operator. Therefore, the proposed regulation provides for:

(a) New operators have access to the capacity in the same way as the consortium members;

(b) Activated capacity is not unduly delayed by consortium members having control over CLS;

(c) Charges are transparent and non-discriminatory to both consortium members and non-members;

(d) Restoration and maintenance services;

(e) Well defined responsibilities in terms of functioning;

(f) Transparent charges for Access, Co-location and Landing Facility;

(g) Time limit for provision of Access, Co-location and Landing Facility.

International leased circuits are used by exporters, BPO units/ Call centers, banks, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), ISPs and other nformation technology enabled service providers. In addition, ILDOs also require international bandwidth connectivity for carrying international voice calls. The proposed regulation would enable:

• bandwidth to end consumers at competitive rates;

• strong competition and therefore reduction in the price of international private leased circuits (IPLCs);

• International bandwidth at competitive price to ISPs for rapid growth of Broadband Service;

• opportunity to ILDOs to get International bandwidth at competitive prices on a range of diversified submarine cables;

Source: TRAI, India

China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) has issued an International Communications Facilities Service Licence to China Tietong, one of the People’s Republic’s smaller fixed line operators. China Tietong becomes the fifth operator to have been awarded such a concession: the others are China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Netcom. Local media report that MII gave China Tietong the licence to make up for the unequal competition it has been facing with in recent years. Previously, China Tietong was only licensed to provide the public with basic telecom services and value-added telecom services.

China Tietong says it has connected ten Chinese port cities with Hong Kong, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Korea and Vietnam through trans-border cables, to meet the demands of international railway operators. The company says that the new licence will help it reduce the operation costs for international services.

Source: Telegeography

�Ÿ Foreign equity limitation

Regarding limitations on shareholding by foreigners in facilities-based telecommunications service providers, Korea and the U.S. have agreed on maintaining the current 49% ceiling in direct investments, and allowing up to 100% in indirect investments by establishing a legal entity in Korea.

The Ministry of Information and Communication will conduct a public interest test on indirect investments, which will be permitted upon confirmation that the investment does not hinder national security. Relevant systems will be improved within two years after the date of entry of the agreement. However, KT and SKT are exceptions to this commitment, and thus investment limitation remains at 49%.

The U.S. limits foreign direct investment from telecommunications operators with radio stations to 20%, while indirect investment by establishing a legal entity in the U.S. is allowed up to 100%, once the investment passes the public interest test.

As a result of the KORUS FTA, both countries now have the same limitations on indirect investment. As for direct investment, the ceiling is 49% in Korea, compared to 20% in the U.S. for suppliers of telecommunications service with radio stations. However, balance has been achieved by making KT and SK Telecom exceptions in allowing up to 100% in indirect investment by foreigners.

�Ÿ Technical standard policies, IPTV, and convergence services

The existing framework for policies on technical standards will continue to be in place.
Initially, the U.S. requested that service providers be given flexibility in the choice of technology. Although Korea recognizes the need for flexibility, it also emphasized the need for policies on technical standards for public policy objectives. In the end, both sides came to acknowledge the government�fs authority to promote such policies, whilst agreeing to ensure a transparent and rational standard setting process, e.g., by giving various opportunities to foreign operators to convey their opinion on the matter.

As for IPTV, because the domestic regulatory framework is yet to be agreed on, it was comprehensively reserved for future measures. foreign ownership limitation, regulation on contents scheduling, and commercial presence obligation have all been comprehensively reserved... see http://www.mic.go.kr/index.jsp

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has sent recommendations on Infrastructure Sharing to the Department of Telecommunications.

The Department of Telecommunication had sought recommendations from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on effective sharing of passive infrastructure (towers etc.). Accordingly, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has concluded consultation process and finalised the recommendations. Given the significance of infrastructure sharing the Authority has not only considered the issue of passive infrastructure sharing but has given the recommendation regarding active infrastructure sharing and backhaul on a suo-motu basis. The Authority also took into consideration of prevailing international practices and has opted for cooperative efforts amongst telecom service providers with least regulatory intervention.

No sharing of spectrum at Access Network side has been recommended.

Full press release

Source: TRAI - Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, India

New Zealand's Minister of Communications has released a consultation document on the operational separation of Telecom NZ. The focus of the document is the planned three-way split of Telecom NZ into network, wholesale and retail divisions. Comments are requested by April 27, 2007. A final determination will be released in June, after which Telecom will have 20 days to prepare a draft separation plan. The split is expected to take effect in September. For more information, see http://www.med.govt.nz/templates/ContentTopicSummary____26310.aspx  The consultation document can be found here:http://www.med.govt.nz/upload/45545/operational-separation-consultation-document.pdf

Background documents that informed the consultation document:
Review of Equivalence Models and Their Potential Application in New Zealand: Report for MED  [ Published 04 April 2007 ] This report clarifies the definitions and potential applications of equivalence in New Zealand, with particular reference to Ofcom's experience with BT in the UK.
Operational Separation: Establishment of a Separate Access Network Services Unit  [ Published 15 February 2007 ] This paper develops and describes a model for the Access Network Services business unit.
Investigation of the BT Separation Model: Report for MED  [ Published 15 December 2006 ] This report provides detailed information on the British Telecom separation model.
Six Degrees of Separation: Operational Separation as a Remedy in European Telecommunications Regulation  [ Published 01 October 2006 ] This paper identifies the problem which separation is intended to tackle, lists a number of possible variants, and discusses the experience in the UK.

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The Thai government blocked access to YouTube on Wednesday after complaining that a short clip on the popular video-sharing site is insulting to the country's beloved monarch.

Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom, the country's minister of information and technology, said YouTube had turned down his request to remove the contentious 44-second video, which shows graffitti-like elements painted over a slideshow of photographs of 79-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej.[...]

Source: Washingtonpost.com.

Russia's Supreme Court has upheld the legality of fees for calls from fixed-line to mobile phones, ITAR-TASS reported Friday.

 Earlier this year, Stanislav Mirochnik, a lawyer and an aide to a State Duma deputy, filed a claim with the Supreme Court seeking to void a governmental ruling on local and long-distance communications. In particular, Mirochnik challenged the fees that fixed-line users subscribed to tariff plans with unlimited calling have to pay when they make calls to mobile users. The court rejected Mirochnik's claim. The fees were introduced in July 2006 simultaneously with the launch of the Calling Party Pays (CPP) principle. In most cases, fixed-line users pay 1.5 rubles per minute for calls to mobile phones.

Source: Cellular-News.

The National Telecommunications Communications says it expects to issue licences for the fourth generation of wireless broadband service, known as WiMax, by the end of this year.

NTC director Prasit Prapingmongkolkarn made the comment after a recent forum to hear opinions from Internet service providers about WiMax and the spectrum standard for wireless connectivity.

He said the NTC now had 2.5-Gigahertz and 3.5 GHz spectrums available for WiMax service, while authorities were studying whether the 5 GHz spectrum would affect Shin Satellite's iPSTAR broadband satellite, which was allocated the spectrum for use. (...)

Source: IPCommunications.

A trade body representing CDMA mobile operators on Monday cautioned against further delay in announcement of spectrum policy for Third Generation mobile services, saying such a delay would put India behind other countries and deprive its citizens of better services. A delay would create more uncertainty in the timing of the launch of 3G services, deprive Indian consumers and businesses of the benefits of these services, and keep India behind other countries, CDMA Development Group (CDG) said in a statement on Monday. 3G services allow mobile companies to offer real-time interactive services like high speed Internet, video streaming and financial trading. To release 3G spectrum for mobile players, the Defence Ministry is supposed to release 45 Mhz of spectrum by the end of this year in the IMT 2000 band and 1800-1900 MHz band. CDG said the announcement of the 3G Spectrum Policy should not in any way be linked to the delay in the release of the spectrum in the 1800 MHz band, which was part of the 45 MHz of spectrum that was to have been freed.

The TRAI Recommendations finalised last year were the second set of recommendations in as many years, and the CDG hopes that the policy announcement will be made by March 2007, as publicly stated by the Government, said Perry La Forge, CDG's Executive Director. CDG recommended that to create a level playing field amongst operators and restore parity from the economies of scale that the 2100 MHz band will offer GSM operators, CDMA operators in India should be allowed to offer CDMA2000 1xEV-DO services (3G services) in their existing 800 MHz band. The Department of Telecom should seriously consider TRAI's recommendations regarding the feasibility to deploy and release 1900 MHz to the CDMA operators concurrent with the release of 2100 MHz Spectrum. The bone of contention between CDMA and GSM players have been the allocation of 1900 Mhz band. As per the TRAI recommendations, the 2.1 GHz (2100 Mhz) spectrum is for both GSM and CDMA operators. While CDMA operators have been allotted spectrum on 800 MHz, the 900 and 1800 Mhz bands are for GSM. TRAI has proposed to introduce 2.1 GHz for both CDMA and GSM and 450 MHz for CDMA. As per a relocation plan given to the Defence Ministry by DoT, the Ministry will release 45 Mhz of spectrum by the end of this year for providing 3G services in the IMT 2000 band and 1800-1900 MHz band. Finally, the CDG encourages DoT to make the entire spectrum allocation and management Technology Neutral so that all future allocations of spectrum are made in equal measure to both of the deployed technologies.

Source: The Hindu.

Upon entrustment of R&D for expansion of radio frequency resources for FY2007, MIC invites public proposals thereon during the period from March 1 through 30, 2007.
R&D for expansion of radio frequency resources for FY2007 is to be implemented by the budget of the Spectrum User Fee System. Specifying R&D themes for expansion of radio frequency resources, MIC entrust those R&D activities to research institutes of the private sector, etc. through public proposal procedures.
Those wishing to apply for R&D, please follow the guidance and send applications no later than March 30, 2007.
The R&D themes and guidance thereof (Japanese-language version) are available at the following websites:
http://www.soumu.go.jp
http://www.e-gov.go.jp
After evaluation by the outside experts, MIC will select research institutes to be entrusted by the end of April 2007.

Source: MIC, Japan

The People’s Republic of China has postponed the award of 3G licences until the first quarter of 2008 at the earliest, according to Beijing-based business magazine Caijing, which cites an unnamed source. The report added that China Mobile will lead another round of tests of TD-SCDMA technology, beginning next month, which will run for a year. During this period, the magazine claims the Chinese government will not consider the award of 3G licences.

Source: Telegeography

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) issued the following statement today (13 February 2007) in response to press enquiries with regard to the judgment handed down by the Court of First Instance in connection with the application for judicial review by PCCW-HKT Telephone Limited (PCCW) against OFTA's second public consultation on Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC):

"We welcome the judgment handed down by the court today, which dismissed PCCW's application for judicial review against OFTA's decision to continue the current public consultation process on FMC.  As such, OFTA will press on with the public consultation exercise until its conclusion.  We will study thoroughly all relevant submissions.  The Telecommunications Authority will make a decision on the matters as soon as possible after due consideration of these submissions." 

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

Bringing together regulatory authorities from all around the world, the 7th Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR) has identified best practice guidelines needed to facilitate the migration of Next Generation Networks (NGN). The 38-point roadmap is designed to encourage regulatory frameworks that foster innovation, investment and affordable access to NGN. "Our goal is to encourage the design of regulatory frameworks that foster innovation, investment and affordable access to NGNs and that facilitate the migration to NGN and ultimately lead to bridging the digital divide," said Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, ITU Secretary-General. "We believe the best practices adopted at this meeting will ultimately offer the possibility of delivering real benefits to providers and consumers, through cost reduction as well as offering innovative new services". The best practice guidelines underscore the importance of embracing the principles of a clear and transparent regulatory process including the adoption and enforcement of rules; technology-neutral and competitive network provision under a coherent approach that address the issues raised by convergence. The guidelines also call on regulators to adopt forward-looking regimes subjected to regular reassessments to ensure that undue regulatory barriers to competition and innovation are removed. This on-going monitoring would also ensure that users and providers are able to migrate to future networks whenever market conditions are met. Mohamed Al Ghanim, Director General of the TRA of the UAE and Chairman of GSR 2007 said, "GSR is the industry’s premiere symposium for ICT regulators and we are delighted that it has concluded on such a high note. We at the TRA of the United Arab Emirates are firmly committed to adopting the best practices identified at this symposium and tailor them for the UAE market", Al Ghanim added. "We encourage all to reap the benefits of these guidelines in order to collectively raise the standards of the telecommunications industry." Regulators are also urged to adopt investment friendly regulation considered as of paramount importance for the success of NGN network deployment, while maintaining a level playing field and protecting consumer interests. The adoption of flexible but accurate interconnection models are also encouraged to allow smooth transitioning to NGNs. In particular, participants agreed that regulators should take steps to ensure that the market suffers no undue distortion of competitiveness. In view of the high level of convergence both at the transport and service level, participants felt that there was a risk that NGN providers and operators could be in a position to restrict service level competition to their own advantage. There was therefore agreement that regulators should be vigilant and monitor any incident that could require a regulatory response in a way that would not act as a deterrent for NGN service providers and operators. Regulators are also asked to keep in mind the need to create regulatory certainty for both incumbent and competing or alternative providers. "NGN is seen as somewhere between the telecom and Internet worlds, creating a whole new range of issues to be tackled by regulators," said Mr Sami Al-Basheer Al-Morshid, Director of ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT)". "The best practice guidelines endorsed by over 100 CEOs and board members of national regulatory authorities come a long way in addressing the issues and provide the way forward for all regulators around the world," he added. Because the deployment of NGN will not happen overnight, the best practices encourage regulators to define policies that allow for the co-existence of legacy and IP networks, alternative voice services such as VoIP or bundled services that can offer voice together with TV and Internet also called triple play. In doing so, regulators are to consider applying the same obligations to all operators and providers of telephony services whether traditional irrespective of how they are delivered to consumers, under the symmetrical regulatory approach. Commenting on the success of the Symposium, Professor Ibrahim Kadi, Senior Advisor of the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) of Saudi Arabia said, "GSR 2007 met its set objectives of providing networking opportunities and the symposium format facilitated the sharing of knowledge and experiences amongst regulators from all over the world." The best practice guidelines cover all aspects of service provision including authorization, access, interconnection and interoperability, numbering and NGN identification systems, universal access, quality of service, consumer awareness, security and protection. This year’s event introduced a new feature, Speed Exchanges, to provide additional opportunities for participants to meet informally and exchange views. Topics discussed in the Speed Exchanges included interconnection, the enabling environment, consumer protection, quality of service, regulatory implications of VoIP, why holding public consultation on NGN, international roaming, regulatory issues for convergence and what to do with regulatory bottlenecks. Speed Exchanges were also held on building confidence and security in the use of ICT as called for by the Action Plan of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and on the next steps in the negotiations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). "The Speed Exchanges proved extremely useful and came at the right time," expressed Roxanne Maria McElvane, Senior Counselor of International Development at the US Federal Communications Commission International Bureau. "After two days of high-level presentations and discussions, the exchanges allowed us to address specific topics and areas of interest with other regulators from around the world providing greater interaction and networking opportunities." The Symposium was organized by ITU and hosted by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the United Arab Emirates (TRA). More than 470 participants took part in the Symposium, with Heads and Board Members from 100 national regulatory authorities as well as private sector representatives and international organizations. http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/Events/Seminars/GSR/GSR07/index.html

India's Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has announced that it has advised the Telecom Commission to fine seven telecoms operators, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Hutchison Essar and Tata Teleservices, for failing to meet their roll-out obligations. Under their new Universal Access Service (UAS) licences, the seven operators were obliged to provide 90% external and in-building coverage within their licensed service areas. The DoT has asked the Telecoms Commission to levy a fine of 70 million rupees (US$1.6 million) per service area.

Source: Global Insight.

The Saudi government has introduced new legislation designed to boost investment in the telecoms sector. All new wireline licensees will be required to offer at least 25% of their shares to the public, while cellular licensees must float at least 40%, Gulf News reports. The government has also lowered the fees levied on fixed and mobile services from 15% to 10%.

Source: Telegeography

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) today (2 February 2007) invited interested parties, including all incumbent telecommunications carrier licensees and broadcasters, to express their interests in bidding for spectrum for the provision of mobile TV services and/or other digital broadcasting services.

A public consultation, initiated by the Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau (CITB), is underway to solicit public views on issues related to the provision of mobile TV services and/or digital broadcasting services in Hong Kong . In accordance with the public consultation paper entitled "Consultation on Digital Broadcasting: Mobile Television and Related Issues" issued on 26 January 2007 , expression of interest will be invited separately from bodies and organisations in bidding for the relevant spectrum for the provision of mobile TV services and/or other digital broadcasting services .

"The purpose of this Expression of Interest exercise is to gauge the level of commercial interests in launching the various digital broadcasting services discussed in the consultation paper, including mobile TV services, digital terrestrial TV services, digital audio broadcasting services and ancillary datacasting services," a spokesperson of OFTA said.

"The information collected through this exercise will be used for analysis by the Government for the preparation of a draft implementation framework for mobile TV services for a second round of public consultation. Having said that, individual Expression of Interests submitted will not be disclosed to the public and commercially sensitive information such as the identities of the submitting parties/companies will be kept confidential," explained the spokesperson.

The spokesperson emphasized that the invitation does not constitute an offer or invitation to participate in the bidding of spectrum for the provision of mobile TV services, nor does it constitute the basis of any contract which may be concluded in relation to the bidding exercise or in respect of any allocation of spectrum for the provision of mobile TV services.

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

The three-day meeting (5-7 February) will bring together Heads of national regulatory authorities from both developed and developing countries to achieve consensus on the best ways to address the challenges brought about by the migration to NGN networks. 60 heads of regulatory authorities, together with 50 of their commissioners and board members are slated to attend. By 2008, at least 50% of all international telecommunication traffic is expected to be carried on IP networks. IP provides a common language in which different networks (for instance fixed and mobile; local and wide-area) can communicate together. Thus, IP is the touchstone for convergence and a common platform for NGN, while network capacity increases every month. In order to remain strategically competitive in an increasingly converged world of services and content where voice is no longer the sole source of revenue, operators and carriers are migrating from circuit-switched to Internet-Protocol (IP) networks and from there to Next-Generation Networks or NGN, which allow for decoupling the network’s transport and service layers. NGN networks promise to offer full and true convergence of fixed and mobile, voice and data, data and video and IT, telecoms and broadcast sectors. This means that the choice of technology used for infrastructure will no longer have an impact on the kinds and variety of services delivered over that infrastructure. The deployment of NGN networks will also offer ubiquitous access for users of these networks as well as for competing service providers. This shift, while taking place gradually, is already happening in several parts of the world. NGN presents many opportunities but also many complexities and challenges and requires new regulatory thinking to promote investment and ensure that carriers can remain competitive in this new environment while ensuring open access. For more information see: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/Events/Seminars/GSR/GSR07/

The completion of a series of regulatory reviews which facilitate technological and market developments, including fixed-mobile convergence and wireless broadband technologies, will be the priority tasks of the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) in 2007, as projected by the Director-General of Telecommunications, Mr M H Au, in the year-end media briefing held today (29 January 2007).

"Technological development is the driver for growth of the industry. As the regulator of the telecommunications market, we have the responsibility to update our regulation and create a favourable environment for investment in new technologies, which ultimately will bring innovation and choice to users and economic benefits to the community as a whole," said Mr Au.

"We have already made considerable progress in 2006 by identifying and analysing the relevant issues, making preliminary proposals in our consultation papers and engaging the industry in discussions of the issues. In 2007, we aim to conclude the reviews so that we can move ahead to implement whatever we consider to be the most appropriate outcome of the reviews," continued Mr Au.

The public consultation on the review of fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) commenced in 2006. Submissions are being studied by OFTA.

"OFTA will complete, as early as possible in 2007, the review on FMC to pave the way for investment in convergent technologies," said Mr Au.

"The rapid development of wireless technologies is another important trend. OFTA will have regard to the Government's spectrum policy, which is now under review, make available spectrum to the market, including the spectrum which enables the provision of mobile services based on the CDMA 2000 standard and the spectrum for broadband wireless access (BWA). Considerations and finalisation of the procedure for the open bidding of the spectrum will be another major task of OFTA in 2007," said Mr Au.

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

The Information and Communications Council invites public comments on "Regulatory Frameworks Pertaining to Telecommunications Numbers for Introducing Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) Services" until February 26, 2007.
On September 29, 2006, MIC inquired of the Information and Communications Council (Chair: Mr. SHOYAMA Etsuhiko, CEO and Chairman of Hitachi, Ltd.) on the "Regulatory Frameworks Pertaining to Telecommunications Numbers for Introducing Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) Services."
In response to the Inquiry, the Council compiled a draft report on January 26, 2007. Thus, the Council invites public comments thereon until February 26, 2007.
The draft report (Japanese-language version) is available at the following websites:
http://www.soumu.go.jp
http://www.e-gov.go.jp

Source: MIC, Japan

[...] On behalf of the President of India, sealed tenders are hereby invited from existing Basic Services Operators (BSO), Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (CMTS) Providers, Unified Access Services Licensees (UASL) and Shortlisted Infrastructure Providers Category-I (IP-Is) for the scheme of “Support from USO Fund for Setting up and Managing Infrastructure Sites and Provision of Mobile Services in specified rural and remote areas of the country”. Support from USO Fund shall be provided to the successful bidder(s) on the Representative Rate arrived through a multi stage bidding process. This Representative Rate shall be provided each year on quarterly basis in arrears for a period of five years. [...]

Source: DoT, India.

Russia’s State Radio Frequency Commission is planning a tender of wireless spectrum covering a number of regions, including the Far East Federal District, Prime Tass reports. The tender will be an opportunity for the country’s second largest cellular operator Vimpelcom to gain spectrum in the Far East. It resorted to legal action last year after the regulator repeatedly turned down its applications for spectrum in the region, an area which is home to around six million people. Vimpelcom currently has frequencies in four of the District’s 13 regions, while its main rivals, MTS and MegaFon, have spectrum covering the entire territory.

Source: Telegeography

In response to media enquiries regarding the complaints received by the Consumer Council on telecommunications services, a spokesperson for the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) made the following statement today (January 11):

"OFTA has been closely monitoring the market situation and will take appropriate regulatory action against any operator who is found in breach of the licence conditions and the Telecommunications Ordinance as the case may warrant.

From OFTA's experience, most consumer complaints about telecommunications services were contractual and billing disputes. While OFTA is not empowered by the Telecommunications Ordinance to arbitrate in such disputes, OFTA is studying the feasibility of formulating a scheme for the better resolution of individual customer disputes, through the establishment of an independent customer dispute adjudication scheme. Industry participation will be voluntary. OFTA is now seeking the industry's support and at the same time working out the details with them. A pilot scheme is being developed."

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

Minister Rho Jun-Hyong of Information and Communication met with representatives from major digital content businesses at Seoul Plaza hotel last December 27. Minister Rho discussed the development direction of the digital content industry in today's telecom-broadcasting convergence era, also measures to promote Korean content industry overseas, and ways to secure technology competitiveness.

At this meeting, measures to globalize DigitalImage technology, digital content and solutions, as well as ways to promote the early use of new services such as WiBro and UCC (user created contents) in the convergence era were discussed.

On occasion of this meeting, the Ministry of Information and Communication(MIC) will promote ETRI's 'Digital Actor Technology' in order to maximize the use of Korean cutting-edge video technology and to promote Korean films globally. Also, MIC plans to seek cooperation measures with global CG studios such as Weta.

The participants of the meeting were in agreement regarding the need to expand more aggressively to overseas market, in order to realize sustainable growth of the digital content industry. To this end, the participants agreed that joint cooperation with the service and information device industries which already have global competitiveness, and expansion of direct service network for contents would be most effective in advancing to overseas markets.

MIC plans to support telecom operators, device manufacturers, solution operators and contents producers through the DPP (Digital Pioneer Project), in order to jointly develop digital content, and conduct commercial pilot services and expand overseas.

Also, a feasibility study on 'wireless joint portal exclusive for small and medium content providers' will be conducted to promote active use of new services such as WiBro and UCC early on, and MIC will also support the development of filtering technology for use against inappropriate contents.

Source: MIC, Korea

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) issued today ( 28 December 2006 ) a consultation paper to solicit views from the public and the industry on its proposal of reviewing the universal service obligation (USO) arrangements.

The purpose of the USO is to ensure that basic service, which consists essentially of telephone line service and public payphone service, is available and affordable to all people in Hong Kong on a non-discriminatory basis irrespective of where they live or do business. PCCW-HKT Telephone Ltd. (PCCW-HKTC) is currently the only service provider being charged with the obligation to provide universal service in the territory.

Under the USO scheme, PCCW-HKTC is compensated for the net cost that it has to incur for providing services to unprofitable customers and public payphones. The net cost is shared by all licensees who provide external telecommunications service (ETS), commonly known as IDD service, based on the traffic volume which the individual licensee handles.

"The present USO regulatory framework has been in place since 1998. Although it was updated in 2000, the telecommunications market has since then experienced rapid changes, such as more households being served by alternative network operators, declining profits in the IDD service and emergence of new technologies such as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP). In view of the fast-changing telecommunications landscape, the existing USO regulatory framework may not be sustainable in its present form. There is therefore a need to review the regulatory framework to ensure that it may keep pace with the market and technological developments," a spokesperson of OFTA said.

"At present, 76% of households have already had alternative local fixed network operators serving their buildings. All local fixed network operators also provide ETS and therefore need to bear the costs of PCCW-HKTC serving unprofitable customers. We have to examine whether alternative fixed network operators should continue to subsidise the costs incurred by PCCW-HKTC in serving unprofitable customers when the operators themselves are able and willing to serve these customers without subsidisation. As such, we would like to seek the views of the public and the industry on the proposed exclusion from the USO scheme of areas or buildings with alternative fixed network coverage," the spokesperson added.

"The profit margin of ETS operators has been significantly driven down by the intensive competition since the liberalization of the ETS market in 1999. The advent of VoIP technology and broadband network access has also made possible the provision of international voice service outside the traditional public switched telephone network. We therefore see also the need to review the current sharing mechanism and explore other alternatives in order that we may put in place a fair, sustainable and effective arrangement," elaborated the spokesperson.

Other issues identified in the consultation paper include the scope of the universal service, how the cost for the USO should be assessed and whether competition should be introduced for the provision of the universal service.

Interested parties are invited to submit their comments on the consultation paper on or before 28 February 2007 . The paper can be downloaded from OFTA's website at www.ofta.gov.hk.

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

The telecom regulator has approved in principle the application of Shin Satellite to test WiMax wireless broadband Internet-access service to see if it will jam its Thaicom 5 satellite. ShinSat plans to share some of the satellite's 3.5GHz spectrum with a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access service.

The National Telecommuni-cations Commission will now examine whether ShinSat's concession allows the company to use its existing frequency to test WiMax. Recently the NTC decided that telecoms operating between 2.5GHz and 3.5GHz could apply to conduct WiMax tests ahead of offering the service commercially.

ShinSat, True Corp and TOT are the first in line to develop WiMax as they are already using the frequencies for their existing businesses. ShinSat occupies the 3.5GHz spectrum, True's pay-TV operator UBC True has 2.5GHz and TOT is at 2.4GHz. The frequencies were assigned to them by the now defunct frequency-allocation committee.

The NTC has put off allocating bandwidth for WiMax and other new services, such as 3G cellular, pending the establishment of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC). The telecom law stipulates that the NTC and NBC jointly create a frequency table, manage frequency use and prescribe frequency-utilisation regulations.

The Central Administrative Court ruled last November to void the appointments of the seven NBC members, citing the unconstitutionality of the selection process. Major telecoms are waiting for the NTC to license 3G and WiMax so they can offer bandwidth-hungry services such as live video broadcasting in a bid to increase revenue per customer.

Thai Mobile, the cellular operator of TOT and CAT Telecom, was awarded 1900MHz, which can be deployed to offer 3G, by the frequency-allocation committee.

TOT, which is in the process of buying out CAT from their Thai Mobile joint venture, is rolling out its 3G network countrywide to lease to other cellular operators.

Source: The Nation, Thailand

Taiwan’s government has approved the first cut in the country’s phone tariffs for seven years. The National Communications Commission has given the green light to a proposed 5.35% cut in leased line rates which will be applied annually between 2007 and 2010, Dow Jones reports. Mobile tariffs will fall by 4.88% each year over the same period, although the cut will not be applied to 3G services. The NCC proposed the price drops in October, but operators responded by calling for the regulator to leave pricing to market factors.

Source: Telegeography

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) has recently completed a comprehensive survey on the coverage of mobile phone networks along popular hiking trails in Hong Kong. Based on the survey results, a total of 125 digital maps covering the same number of popular hiking trails in Hong Kong have been produced and published on OFTA's web site for the public's reference.

"The digital maps cover most of the popular hiking trails in Hong Kong, providing useful information to hikers on whether emergency telephone calls may be connected to at least one of the local mobile operators along the hiking trails," a spokesperson of OFTA said.

The survey began in mid-March 2006 and has taken five months to complete. The total length of hiking trails covered is over 600 km. "It is a large scale project which requires intensive manpower to complete. Thanks to the voluntary participation of over 50 OFTA's staff members in the survey, the whole project has been successfully completed. The digital maps have been published on OFTA's web site by phases and the first batch was published in September. It is our plan to update the maps regularly," the spokesperson continued.

In the maps, three different colours are used along the trails to denote the availability of mobile service coverage. Green colour indicates that the signal of at least one local mobile network is good. Yellow colour indicates that the voice quality of calls may be poor whereas red colour indicates that there is no network coverage at all. At locations marked with green or yellow, hikers subscribing to any GSM network may dial 112 to contact the 999 Emergency Centre.

However, the spokesperson emphasized that the digital maps should be used as reference only. It is still important for hikers to make all necessary preparations before setting off, including paying attention to weather reports, making reference to the more detailed hiking publications published by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, and avoiding hiking alone.

"Hikers should also understand the limitation of mobile service. Owing to the hilly terrain of Hong Kong and the characteristics of radio propagation, it is unavoidable that some locations have no or poor mobile service coverage," the spokesperson reiterated.

The Government has been spending efforts to enhance the safety of hikers and country park visitors. Various initiatives have been taken to encourage mobile network operators to build more base stations to serve the country parks. These initiatives include charging a nominal rent of $1 per year for use of Government land, allowing operators to use existing facilities at Government hill-top sites, and waiving the utilisation fee for the additional radio spectrum specifically allocated to serve the country parks. These measures have been proved to be effective as five new base stations have already been built this year. They are at Cloudy Hill in Tai Po, Shek Uk Shan in Sai Kung, Woodside near Tai Tam Country Park, Tsuen Kam Au near Tai Mo Shan and Robin's Nest near Sha Tau Kok. With these new base stations, the total number of base stations for country parks has increased to 12. Several other new base stations are also being planned for 2007. They include three additional base stations, which are already in the pipeline, to improve mobile network coverage in southern Lantau, Tai Lam Chung and eastern Sai Kung.

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

The Belarusian Council of Ministers has published its latest results on the development of the local telecoms industry and announced details of its programme for the period 2006-2010, which includes plans to upgrade more analogue switches to digital. The Council aims to increase digitisation to 80% of local fixed line networks by 2010, by which date the number of main lines in service is expected to pass 3.6 million, a teledensity of 38 lines per 100 inhabitants. According to a report published on 1 October, the penetration of fixed lines currently stands at 37% in main cities, but is only 28% in smaller towns. During the first nine months of 2006 160,400 analogue lines were upgraded, while numbering capacity was increased by 55,600.

As part of its five-year development programme Belarus plans to roll out 7,200km of fibre-optic lines by 2010 to improve the focus on data-related broadband access technologies. A greater emphasis will be placed on the deployment of xDSL access technologies, and the number of broadband access ports available to national operator Beltelecom is expected to reach 240,500 by 2010, while the total number of subscribers to its network is forecast to top eight million. Moreover, the government is keen to auction licences for 3G mobile services. Frequency bands 1885MHz-2025MHz and 2110MHz-2200 MHz have already been allocated for UMTS mobile communication systems, and will be offered via a competitive tender (no date for the award has been provided). By October 2006 more than 5.5 million Belarusian mobile phones had been registered and mobile operators covered 73% of Belarus where 92% of its population reside.

Source: Telegeography

The Malaysian government has granted Telenor an extra year to cut its 61% stake in mobile operator DiGi Telecommunications to comply with foreign direct investment (FDI) legislation. The Norwegian group has until 31 December 2007 to reduce its stake to less than 49%. It must also increase the DiGi equity held by the investors from the country’s indigenous ethnic population from 10% to 30%.

According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, DiGi entered the Malaysian telecoms market in May 1995. Originally known as Mutiara Telecommunications, it changed its name to DiGi in January 1999 and Norway's Telenor took a 30% stake in the company at the end of that year. After gradually upping its holding until it reached a level where a general offer could be made, in September 2001 Telenor increased its direct ownership to 61%. At the time of the deal, Malaysia's Foreign Investment Committee (FIC) gave Telenor a five-year waiver from the country's standard 49% FDI limit. Telenor spent much of 2006 attempting to negotiate a further year extension on the waiver, leading many to speculate that it would look to seal a long-rumoured tie-up between DiGi and fixed line operator TIME dotCom, reducing its stake to a permitted level in the process.

Source: Telegeography

The government of Indonesia has awarded new licences to Bakris Telecom and Mobile-8 Telecom allowing them to provide nationwide fixed wireless access (FWA) services based on code division multiple access (CDMA) technology, as part of a shake up in the allocation of mobile frequencies, writes The Jakarta Post. The new concessions are by way of compensation for the operators having their frequency bandwidths reduced to make room for new 3G mobile operators, said Information and Communications Minister Sofyan A. Djalil. Publicly listed operators Bakrie Telecom and Mobile-8 Telecom will now be able to go head-to-head across the country with former monopoly PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), which offers FWA services using CDMA under the banner TelkomFlexi. Until now, Bakrie Telekom has been limited to offering services on Java where it has 1.3 million customers. Mobile-8 Telecom welcomed the decision which it says will enable it to up its capacity to 30 million customers.

Source: Telegeography

Information and Communications Technology Minister Sitthichai Pokai-udom wants regulators to recall all radio frequencies allocated to mobile phone operators for redistribution. Dr Sitthichai did not give a timeframe for the reallocation, as the authority rests with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). But he said the NTC should do so in order to resolve disputes among mobile phone operators.

DTAC was allocated much more frequency bandwidth than rival Advanced Info Service (AIS). It later sold part of it to True Move and Digital Phone. Last month, market leader Advanced Info Service (AIS) complained that it had less bandwidth than DTAC, after the latter griped about unfairly high access charges.

Private operators have welcomed a telecom reform plan proposed by the ICT ministry, saying it would solve disputes and pave the way for further industry changes that are planned next year. AIS said the ministry was on the right track to resolve differences. True Move, however, said that although reforms would mean more payments by AIS, the higher payments would not benefit either True Move or DTAC. AIS president Wichien Mektrakarn said company executives accepted the expected change in the concession agreement it had with TOT.

The executives agreed that under the reform deal telecom operators reached with Dr Sitthichai, AIS would be better off, Mr Wichien said. Although the company would pay 20% to 25% more revenue to TOT from prepaid services, it would benefit from fairer payment procedures, he added. Significantly, the higher payments made by AIS would not benefit the company's rivals, Mr Wichien said. They would only reduce longstanding conflicts.

However, he said, AIS should be treated fairly on payment procedures because it still must pay revenue based on amounts before value-added tax, whereas other operators share revenue after tax. In addition, AIS wants payments made on the same schedule as other operators, and fairer bandwidth allocation, he said.

Mr Wichien also asked TOT to set a timeframe to prepare for industry changes, as its heavy reliance on revenue from private operators would prove devastating when private operators switch to a licence-based system. AIS has a customer base of 19 million. Seventeen million are prepaid, accounting for 60% of revenue, he added. True Corp chief executive Supachai Chearavanont said the reforms were the clearest development for the industry since the Telecom Business Law was introduced five years ago.

However, he wants to see what will happen when interconnection charges become effective while access charges are also applied. Because revenue from interconnection charges is significant, he said, the NTC and all operators must figure out rules for collecting the money.

If TOT and CAT collect revenue from interconnection based only on incoming traffic while offsetting all outgoing traffic, it could become a heavier burden for operators than the access charges, he said. This is because some operators might have heavier outgoing traffic than incoming traffic.

Source: Bangkokpost, Thailand

Rho Jun-hyong, Minister of Information and Communication attended the Korea-Australia Summit Meeting accompanying President Roh Moo-hyun on his visit to Australia. The following day, Minister Rho also attended the Korea-Austria-New Zealand Broadband Summit(KANZ) and promoted Korea's IT while holding the IT Ministers Meeting with Australia.

Along with Minister Rho of Korea, Helen Coonan Minister of Communications, Information and Culture of Australia and David Cunliffe Minister of Economic Development of New Zealand, about 150 IT entrepreneurs and researchers from the three countries related to digital contents, DMB, WiBro, Home Networking and Telematics took part in the event.

In his keynote speech, Minister Rho said that through the two KANZ Summits, Korea, Australia and New Zealand have set up a basic framework for IT cooperation within a short period of time, and suggested that the three countries form a Director-General level meeting to maintain close cooperative relationships.

Also, Minister Rho proposed that Korea, Australia and New Zealand, which are the leading countries in IT infrastructure and technology as well as digital contents, should mutually complement each other and promote joint cooperation projects in the digital contents sector. Minister Rho proposed that the main agenda of the fourth meeting shall be the SW sector, in order to create a synergy effect in the SW sector of which all three countries have great cooperation potential.

In the meanwhile, Minister Rho held a bilateral meeting with Minister Coonan and discussed cooperation between the two countries in the field of digital video and also asked for the support and interest of the Australian government with regard to Korea's terrestrial DMB, currently being commercially serviced for the first time in the world.

It is expected that the event will enhance IT cooperation between the three countries and expand opportunities for Korean companies to advance to Oceania. The fourth KANZ Broadband Summit will take place in New Zealand.

Source: MIC, Republic of Korea

The two day Executive Level Training organized by the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) and infoDev, in cooperation with the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA), Hong Kong, China, ended on 3 December 2006. More than 50 Senior Executives from 27 countries gathered in Hong Kong, China to participate in this event.

The training focused on New Technologies, New thinking, ICT Regulation in a Changing World and highlighted how the joint ITU-infoDev ICT regulation toolkit could help regulators and policy makers. The ICT Regulation Toolkit and the training programme were designed to enable regulators and policy makers to identify solutions to their real world challenges. Nearly ninety percent of the participants expressed a high level of satisfaction and the wish to continue such training. The joint ITU infoDev ICT Regulation Toolkit was very well received and generated a lot of positive feedback. To learn more about this event, click here. To access the ICT regulation toolkit, click here.

Taiwan's flat-panel display (FPD) industry is expected to add three 7.5G plants and one 8G plant to volume production of TFT LCD panels by 2009, according to Shih Yen-Shiang, vice minister of Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

AU Optronics (AUO) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) will invest NT$400 billion (about US$12.4 billion) to build 7.5-generation (7.5G) and higher-generation TFT LCD plants by 2009, Shih said.

AUO's 7.5G plant, located in the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP) in Taichung, is scheduled to begin volume production, with a monthly capacity to process 10,000 substrates, by the end of 2006, AUO stated in early August, adding the plant is expected to reach full capacity of 60,000 units per month in the future.

CMO will begin first-stage equipment installation at its 7.5G plant in the fourth quarter of 2006, with volume production to commence in the second quarter of 2007, according to CMO.

CMO also plans to finish construction of an 8G plant by 2007, and volume production will kick off in 2008, according to the Kaohsiung Science Park (KSP) administration.

Taiwan's FPD industry will see investments of NT$337.3 billion in 2006, Shih indicated.

Regarding investments in front-end panel production in China, Shih emphasized the government has lifted a ban on companies that wish to invest in LCD module (LCM) and small-size (4 inches and below) panel cell process (mid-range) production in China. Currently, Taiwan-based panel makers have no urgent need to invest in front-end production in China, and it takes time for China's panel-industry supply chain to mature, he added.

Nevertheless, the government will keep grinding its policy on China-bound investments for Taiwan-based panel makers, adjusting it according to Taiwan's FPD industry development.

For industry mergers, Shih stressed that the government will not actively promote any mergers among Taiwan-based panel makers. See http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20061208PD211.html

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has confirmed it will introduce licensing regulations for the third-generation (3G) broadband cellular business next year, despite the absence of a National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

NTC chairman Choochart Promphrasid yesterday said the telecom sector could not wait too long to adopt the new technology. "I think it's time for the commissioners to make a decision on the matter," he said. Choochart said the NTC would act on a ruling from the Council of State that the NTC "might be able" to refer to the frequency table of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as a guideline for managing the telecom industry.

The ITU is an international organisation under the United Nations in which governments and private companies work together to coordinate the operations of telecom networks and services and advance the development of communications technology. The Council of State's ruling came after the NTC asked whether it could issue the new frequency licences in the absence of the National Broadcasting Commission.

Telecom operators are eager to obtain the 3G licences so they can use the blazing speed of the new technology to provide wireless services like video calling and interactive wireless games, thereby earning more revenues. Choochart said operators whose existing frequencies could be developed to offer 3G services could immediately submit applications for  consideration by the NTC.

The NTC was expected to formulate 3G licensing regulations some time last year, before the Central Administrative Court nullified the selection process for 14 candidates for seven seats on the NBC in November 2005. Telecom law requires both the NTC and the NBC jointly to create the national frequency table, manage the broadcasting and telecom spectra and prescribe rules for their use.

Coincidentally, the five-day Telecom World 2006 forum held by the ITU in Hong Kong and which ends today discussed expansion of the forum's theme to include both broadcasting and telecommunications, because of the convergence of the two technologies. Currently, only state-run Thai Mobile owns a 1900MHz spectrum band that can be used to develop 3G services. The now-defunct Frequency Allocation Committee gave the bandwidth to Thai Mobile in the pre-NTC era.

Source: The Nation, Thailand

More than 300 senior executives and experts from China Telecom and 70 other major telecommunication operators from around the world shared their experiences of installing and managing NGN networks at The Network Transformation Summit, jointly sponsored by ZTE and China Telecom, which was held in Hong Kong this week.

The main topics of the summit were the role of NGN technology in network transformation, China Telecom’s network transformation opinion and experience, experiences of partnership between telecoms operators and equipment providers, and operation innovation and development in the telecoms industry. During the summit, China Telecoms and ZTE celebrated one year of stable operation of the China Telecom's long-distance NGN project. Delegates from FT, TMI (Telecom Malaysia International) and other top operators also shared their network construction and maintenance experiences.
 
China Telecom is one of the largest fixed-line network operators in the world and has extensive operational experience in fixed-line, wireless PHS and broadband data networks. Ms. Zhao Huiling, vice president of China Telecom’s Beijing Research Institute, said that China Telecom’s network transformation is highlighted by the launch of the NGN based long-distance backbone project, which was awarded to ZTE as sole equipment supplier. The project was started in May 2005 and now covers 31 provinces and autonomous regions throughout China. It is, so far, the largest fixed NGN network in the world in terms of number of nodes and has 300 million subscribers. The launch of the NGN backbone further improves China Telecom’s quality of service in those provinces, secures revenue from long-distance voice traffic and provides much more efficient, and more varied, services. Reviewing the latest approaches to network transformation, ZTE vice president Ms. Jien Chen, analysed current telecoms network structures and future network development trends, and pointed out that operators should pay more attention to end-users’ multi-play service requirements. As an example she discussed ZTE’s innovative F3G (Fast Triple Gain) solution, which is designed to address multi-play services. As an end-to-end networking solution, F3G fully addresses the requirements of service construction, deployment and management during network transformation.

During the summit's Q&A session, chaired by Mr. Wang Xuejun, vice president of Yankee Group Asia-Pacific, delegates from operators including FT, TM of South Africa shared their opinions on how to construct a highly efficient and profitable telecom network. “This summit was jointly sponsored with China Telecom to give us an opportunity to share with the world’s leading operators the lessons that have been learnt in developing the world’s largest NGN fixed line network,” said Jane.Chen, “Our aim was to share the knowledge acquired in this process and to give operators the chance to share their experiences from other major markets, with the aim of enhancing global knowledge of, and interest in, NGN networks.” (...)

Source: Total Telecom.

A new report says building a single high-speed broadband network across Australia is not the best way to improve Internet speeds. The report has been released by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA). Report author Professor Joshua Gans says it should not be up to a single provider like Telstra to build a national broadband network. He says there needs to be a series of solutions at a local level delivered by a range of providers. "The investments that are critically needed to upgrade broadband to the next level are primarily a lot of little local investments," he said. "Moreover those investments vary in their efficacy and also the mode and the technology you might use from locality to locality, so imposing one big national solution on it is way too high a hurdle."

Source: ABC.

Russia's IT and Telecommunications Ministry is holding negotiations with China's telecom regulator on Russian mobile operators' entry into the Chinese market, Boris Antonyuk, deputy IT and telecommunications minister, said, Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday. Antonyuk said that a joint venture between Russian and Chinese companies was one of the ways Russian operators could enter the market, the daily reported. Antonyuk did not provide the names of the Russian operators that might enter the Chinese market. A source in the ministry said that the talks were very tough because the Chinese government has to amend its current legislation, which does not allow foreign companies provide mobile services, the daily reported. In March, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, the owner of major Russian holding AFK Sistema, said that the holding may create a joint venture with a Chinese company to provide mobile services. Sistema controls Russia's largest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS).

Source: Cellular-News.

The signing, which took place yesterday, follows DTAC's forging of a similar deal with True Move on November 17. AIS and DTAC agreed on a termination rate of Bt1 per minute. The rate takes effect immediately, and the two companies will start billing each other next February. If DTAC transits its call via AIS to a third network, it will pay Bt1 per minute to AIS. The rate will be 50 satang a minute in reverse. Both termination and transit rates will be reviewed each year.

Both declined to reveal their expected gain from interconnection fees, but a telecom analyst estimated that AIS would earn about Bt3.5 billion annually from interconnection fees from all telecom operators. AIS, DTAC and True Move each have more than 17 million, 11 million and 5 million customers, respectively.

The interconnection regulations of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) mandates that all telecom firms share voice and data revenues between any two networks involved in a call on a fair basis. DTAC chief executive Sigve Brekke said the signing marked another step forward toward liberalisation, while AIS president Wichian Mektrakarn said his company expected to sign a similar deal with True Move in the next two weeks. CAT Telecom has already asked AIS to negotiate with it on a similar deal. The NTC's interconnection-charge regime covers origination, transit and termination charges. The termination charge is what a service provider pays to another provider for receiving its call, while the transit charge is what a service provider pays to an intermediate network for passing its call on to the receiving network.

The origination charge is what the service provider that receives a call pays to the network from where the call originated. The charge is for CAT, which must share its revenues from international calls with the operator that transfers the calls from its subscribers to CAT. DTAC and True Move agreed on a termination rate of Bt1 per minute and a transit rate of 20 satang a minute. All telecom operators, except TOT, are currently in talks on a bilateral basis to finalise the interconnection rates, and all are expected to reach an agreement next month. The NTC is expected to start approving its finished rates next week.

However, a Rangsit University lecturer yesterday filed a petition with the Central Administrative Court, asking that the NTC's interconnection charge be terminated, citing its impact on the national interest. The NTC has already promulgated the interconnection regime in the Royal Gazette, in May. TOT has also made it clear it wants the interconnection charge to be delayed for one year, saying it was not ready to comply with the regime.

A report in a local newspaper this week said the NTC agreed to fix all interconnection rates at zero for one year, in order to pave the way for the Information and Communications Technology Ministry (ICT) to resolve the dispute on access charges and interconnection rates.

ICT Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom yesterday said the zero rate was just a proposal to the NTC, adding that Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont yesterday asked TOT, CAT and the NTC to set up a joint panel to clear up the access-charge conflict. The NTC and the ICT Ministry met the premier yesterday to discuss a plan to end the access-charge conflict between TOT and CAT's private cellular concessionaires. DTAC wants to pay only the interconnection charge instead of both interconnection and access charges. But TOT has yet to grant the request, out of concern about losing access-charge revenue. The state agency has earned Bt14 billion a year in access charges from all of CAT's cellular concessionaires.

All of CAT's cellular concession holders, including True Move and DTAC, have paid the access charge to TOT as the cost of connecting different networks via TOT's facilities. "We cannot move backwards, as now the two largest cellular operators have already signed the deal," said Brekke. Meanwhile, both AIS and DTAC have shared a common view that if they must pay the additional excise tax to the government, they might have no choice but to pass on the higher cost stemming from the tax to consumers.

Another possible choice is cutting business costs, resulting in a slowdown of its network investment that would in turn affect consumers. Wichian said the government should terminate any telecom excise tax if it wanted to promote fair competition. Sitthichai has already proposed to the Finance Ministry that amendments be made to a Cabinet resolution from the time of the ousted Thaksin government that would allow private telecom operators to deduct part of their concession fees for payment of excise tax.

The amendment will see private telecom operators pay the full concession fee to their state concession owners - TOT or CAT Telecom - and excise duty to the government. They will not be able to deduct part of the concession fee for payment of excise tax. Under a 2003 resolution by the Thaksin Cabinet, all private cellular operators must pay 10 per cent of their concession fees as excise duty to the government first before sharing the remainder with TOT or CAT.

Likewise, all fixed-line operators pay 2 per cent of their concession fees to the government before sharing the remainder with TOT. This has resulted in a reduction in the two state agencies' concession revenues, while they are also subject to excise payment like all other operators.

Source: The Nation, Thailand

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has refused to grant a Mumbai mobile licence to start-up operator Aditya Birla Telecom because its parent company Aditya Birla Group already operates in the region via another subsidiary, Idea Cellular, according to the Economic Times. Aditya Birla Telecom and Idea Cellular both applied for the Mumbai spectrum at the start of this year, but only Idea has been granted frequencies. Aditya Birla Group owns 65% of Idea Cellular via Aditya Birla Nuvo, Birla TMT Holdings, Grasim Industries and Hindalco Industries. Aditya Birla Nuvo also holds 99.97% of the equity in Aditya Birla Telecom. ‘Two licences cannot be issued where a single company, Aditya Birla Nuvo, is having more than 10% stake in the applicant company as well as in Idea Cellular,’ the DoT reportedly said in its rejection letter.

Source: Telegeography

CAT Telecom's board yesterday approved deep cuts in its earlier proposed interconnection (IC) rate by 35-85% in an attempt to encourage more telecom operators to use its international networks for connections. The new rates will be submitted to the National Telecommunications Commission this week.

Earlier, CAT Telecom had proposed an IC rate of 1.07 baht per minute for origination, termination and transit rates. The new rates are 0.69 baht per minute for both origination and termination, a 35% drop, and 0.16 baht for the transit rate, or 85% lower than the earlier rate.

CAT president Phisal Jorpoocha-udom said that increased competition forced the company to lower IC rates. He was confident that the new rates would encourage more operators, both old and new, to use its network for overseas connections. If more calls pass through CAT's network, then people will benefit in terms of lower service prices, he said. For mobile phone users, CAT charges 15 satang for an SMS/MMS, and one satang/Kb of data transmission, he said.

An origination rate is paid by the receiving carrier to the carrier that originates a call. This fee will apply to CAT, which must share international call revenue with telecom operators that transfer calls to CAT's international gateway. A termination rate is paid by the outgoing call's carrier to the provider at the receiving end. A transit rate is paid by the outgoing call's carrier to an intermediate carrier.

Earlier, Advanced Info Service proposed three baht per minute for the origination rate, 1.07 baht for the termination rate, and one baht for the transit rate. DTAC proposed rates of three baht, one baht and 50 satang, while True Move proposed three baht, one baht and 20 satang.

Source: Bangkokpost, Thailand

Hong Kong’s telecoms regulator OFTA has awarded Tricom Asia an External Fixed Telecommunications Network Services (EFTNS) licence, giving it the right to operate international facilities-based telecoms services via its 1,050km undersea fibre-optic cable, VN-HK, linking Hong Kong and Vietnam, which is currently under construction. According to the carrier, it is the sole new EFTNS licensee in Hong Kong since China Telecom won a concession in 2005. Operating via three offices in Stockholm, Hong Kong and Hanoi, Tricom Asia is focused on investing in telecommunication solutions in emerging markets in the Asia Pacific regionl; it established its Hong Kong division in 2003.

Source: Telegeography

Taiwan's National Communications Commission (NCC) on November 27 held a second public hearing for its draft plan to control pricing of local fixed-line telephone, 2G mobile communications and leased-circuit services and indicated that a final plan will be announced by the end of this year and take effect on April 1, 2007 as originally scheduled.

All telecom carriers that attended the meeting objected to the planned pricing controls.

Based on the two public hearings, NCC decided to reevaluate the value of a adjustable coefficient used in a formula for calculating allowable price adjustments by the telecom companies. In addition, the NCC requested that the telecoms provide more evidence to support their argument that there is sufficient market competition for leased ADSL circuits, local fixed-line phone calls to mobile phone numbers and mobile pre-paid cards. The NCC also decided that low-power PHS (personal handy-phone system) will be exempt from the pricing control.

NCC stated there probably will be no further hearings and that after possible adjustments to the pricing coefficient are taken into account, the price controls will go into effect on April 1, 2007. See http://www.digitimes.com/telecom/a20061128PD204.html

ICT minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom said yesterday that the issues to be discussed with the premier include access and interconnection charges, revenue sharing of private telecom operators, and the telecom excise tax. Last Friday, Sitthichai proposed to the Finance Ministry to terminate the previous Cabinet's resolution introduced in February 2003 that permitted private telecom operators to pay a part of their concession fees as excise tax.

This move led to a decline in the concession revenues of TOT and CAT Telecom, which owned the private telecom concessions. Sitthichai said that the excise tax cost TOT and CAT Bt23.903 billion and Bt15.249 billion, respectively, from 2003 to 2005. TOT owns the concessions of the largest cellular operator Advanced Info Service (AIS), which was founded by the Shinawatra family, True Corp and TT&T, while CAT owns the cellular concessions of Total Access Communication (DTAC), Digital Phone (DPC), and True Move. Under the telecom excise tax, the private cellular concessionaires have directly paid 10 per cent out of their concession fees to the government before sharing the remainder with TOT or CAT.

The fixed telephone operators have paid 2 per cent out of the concession fee to the government before giving the remainder to TOT or CAT.

"This is unfair as the tax passes on the private telecom operators' burden to the state telecom agencies," Sittichai said. He added that the guidelines are expected to be concluded next month. Besides the telecom excise tax, he will discuss with the prime minister the access charge dispute between the state and private telecom operators. The access charge is the cost all CAT cellular concessionaires have paid TOT for connecting different networks via TOT's facilities, while the interconnection charge of the National Telecommuni-cations Commission (NTC) has mandated all telecom operators to share voice and data revenue proportionately between the networks involved in the calls.

DTAC has asked TOT to convert the access charge into the interconnection charge, so that it will pay only the latter charge. But the state agency has yet to grant the request out of concern for losing the access charge revenue.

Source: NTC, Thailand

Taiwan's National Communications Commission (NCC) on November 23 formally requested Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) to transform its MOD (multimedia on demand) business into an open platform. NCC also requires from CHT not to operate channels and deliver contents at the open platform.

Although CHT's business is subject to telecommunication regulations, its MOD service is similar to cable TV services, which are subject to broadcast regulations. This caused controversy because CHT is legally not eligible for cable TV operations.

For the problem to be solved, NCC decided that MOD has to be an independent platform available for use by ISPs (Internet service providers), channel operators, digital content providers and operators of fixed-line telecommunication services. Therefore, CHT should allow connections between MOD and networks of interested operators, although connections with ISPs are restricted to PPPoE (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet) dial-up access through CHT's ADSL network, NCC indicated. In addition, CHT should release hardware and software specifications for MOD STBs (set-top boxes). See http://www.digitimes.com/telecom/a20061124PD203.html

In addition, TOT has set up a panel to consider legal action against the mobile phone operators after they signed a landmark IC deal last week that aims to share revenue based on call traffic. Both DTAC and True Move said they would stop paying the access charge of 200 baht per number per month that forms the bulk of TOT's 14 billion baht in annual revenues.

Vice Adm Thommarat said that if DTAC and True Move ceased payment, then TOT could take direct action against CAT Telecom, which granted mobile phone concessions to both companies.

The National Telecommunications Commission has said IC charges will take effect early next month if mobile phone operators could reach agreements by themselves. Gen Choochart Promprasit, the regulator's chairman, said yesterday that the NTC board was still waiting for TOT's official request to postpone IC charges. The final decision will be made by the seven-member NTC board.

DTAC chief executive Sigve Brekke said his company would do its utmost to reach a fair solution on access charges with TOT after it stopped paying them on Saturday. But if TOT refused to talk, he added, then DTAC was ready to fight in court.

He warned TOT not to shut down its interconnection gateways with private operators, claiming it was illegal and would breach the interconnection regulations. It would also hurt TOT's own customers.
''DTAC doesn't want to change its existing contract with TOT,'' Mr Brekke said. ''But we need the agency to replace access charges with interconnection charges to end discrimination in favour of mobile leader Advanced Info Service.'' Under the access charge system, he said, DTAC paid eight baht per minute for its call traffic crossing TOT gateways, or about 839 million baht per month.

Mr Brekke said DTAC was willing to pay 25% more in interconnection charges to TOT than it paid to True Move. The termination rate would be 1.25 baht per minute, and the transit rate 50 satang per minute. Both are the same as what the government initially requested to the NTC. Twenty percent of DTAC's total traffic to AIS numbers passed through TOT gateways, with the remaining 80% connected directly with AIS networks. Under the interconnection regulations, all telecoms are required to fairly share voice and data revenue between two networks.

Meanwhile, DTAC said yesterday that it would delay its plan to list on the Stock Exchange of Thailand to ensure that both it and parent company Ucom, which plans to delist, are in full compliance with market regulations. The move would also protect minority shareholders, Mr Brekke said.

The delay will cause TAC, majority owned by Norway's Telenor, to lose a corporate tax reduction of 5% off the regular rate of 30% for five financial years. But Mr Brekke said he believed that the government's new incentives on listing would compensate for the loss.

Source: NTC, Thailand 

Considering the growing dissatisfaction among consumers, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (‘the Authority’) acting in the consumer interest, has initiated a consultation process with the aim of reducing the bulk of unsolicited commercial communications (UCC). UCC includes telemarketing calls, SMSs, or other commercial or marketing messages. The Authority is aware that it cannot enforce a perfect solution due to jurisdictional limitations, but seeks to provide immediate relief to consumers through a lowcost and simple solution.

 

More than 170 million Indians are now telephone subscribers, and this number is increasing at over 6 million a month. This growing and large subscriber base is a large potential target for advertising and marketing activities. Ubiquitous access to telephones has led to the creation of a large telemarketing industry – where salespersons call telephone subscribers indiscriminately to market goods and services. The majority of telemarketing phone calls are unsolicited – the called party has not given prior permission to the telemarketer to contact them. The Authority notes that such calls disturb a large number.

Source: TRAI, India

A Minister of Communications-appointed advisory panel is calling on the two regional fixed line units of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) to cut their local phone call charges in a bid to establish equality in payments among subscribers, writes the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The Telecommunications Council will also request NTT East and NTT West to reduce their basic telecom rates, which are currently higher for urban users than for people living in the provinces, in response to numerous complaints over high charging from people living in the affected areas.

Under Japanese telecoms law, NTT is required to provide universal access which burdens it with the cost of providing services and maintaining the networks in unprofitable, low-population density areas. Although the industry set up a sector-wide cost-sharing ‘universal service’ grants system (that incidentally reaped JPY15.3 billion in its first-year of contributions in 2005), critics of the system fear that NTT East, NTT West and rival carrier KDDI are looking to bring in a levy of JPY7 per month for a phone line from January 2007, effectively passing on the cost of their contributions to the subscriber. Consumer groups are obviously against such a move and have now received crucial support from the Telecommunications Council.

Source: Telegeography

Bhutan Information Communications and Media Authority (BICMA) has awarded the country’s second national cellular licence to local industrial conglomerate the Tashi Group. Tashi beat three other firms with its offer of BTN777 million (USD17.5 million). It must launch its first commercial services within a year. The other short-listed bidders were all local firms partnered with foreign telcos: the Singye Group and Druktel teamed up with two Indian telcos, Reliance and Airtel respectively, while Bhutan Steel formed a bidding consortium with ShinSat of Thailand. The country’s current monopoly cellular operator B-Mobile, which is a subsidiary of state-owned Bhutan Telecom, had around 70,000 subscribers at the end of September.

Source: Telegeogaphy

The NTC has allocated the prefix of 06 mainly for providing the VoIP service from phone to phone, including other new telecom-technology services, under its interim numbering plan. The phone-to-phone VoIP service will use the 06 prefix, followed by an eight-digit number. The regulator is expected to introduce the official numbering plan next month.

The operators of the phone-to-phone VoIP service will also be subject to the NTC interconnection charge regime, which requires all telecom operators to share voice and data revenues between the networks involved in the calls on a fair basis. VoIP technology allows free or cheap calls to anywhere in the world via an IP channel rather than a telephone network.

Among the existing providers of VoIP services from personal computer to personal computer and personal computer to phone include CAT Telecom, True Internet and TT&T.

Meanwhile, the NTC has yet to grant a licence to ACeS Regional Service (ARS) to operate a satellite-based cellular service.

Sudharma said the company had operated a satellite-based cellular service under a CAT concession and now wanted to comply with NTC regulations.

Sudharma said the NTC needed to examine first whether it could award the licence to ARS, which used an Indonesian satellite to offer the service. The NTC has also yet to grant a licence to Shin Satellite to offer an international Internet gateway (IIG) service, pending further study of the application details.

IIGs serve as a channel for local Internet service providers to connect or exchange traffic with global Internet networks.

Source: NTC, Thailand

Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo, the wireless arm of incumbent fixed line operator NTT, says it has received regulatory approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States, clearing its 100% acquisition of Guam Cellular & Paging, Inc (Guam Cellular) and Guam Wireless Telephone Company, LLC (Guam Wireless). According to DoCoMo, the agreement was concluded on 20 March this year for an agreed sum of USD71.8 million.

Under the terms of the deal, DoCoMo will buy all the outstanding equity of Guam Cellular through an established holding company, after which it will move to buy Guam Wireless through Guam Cellular and subsequently merge the two companies. In addition, DoCoMo has promised to provide funds of up to USD6.5 million to expand and upgrade the enlarged company’s facilities and infrastructure. As a result of the deal DoCoMo will be able to offer an improved service to the large number of Japanese travellers who visit Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands each year. Local inhabitants will also benefit from improved services such as an improved GSM network with a GPRS overlay. In the future the new Japanese owner says it hopes to introduce a W-CDMA network for 3G services utilising frequency owned by Guam Cellular.

Source: Telegeography

Malaysia’s first WiMAX licences will not now be issued until sometime next year, according to local news sources quoting Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) indefinitely postponed its tender for the licences in July 2006. The tender, covering the 2.3GHz-2.4HGz bands, was halted under order from the Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications (MEWC), because the terms of the bidding, set by the MCMC, were not in line with the MEWC's own licensing regulations, most notably in terms of the roll out of infrastructure. The MCMC later said it would not relaunch the tender, opting instead to stick with the submissions it has already received from 17 companies, including DiGi Telecommunications, Maxis Communications, MiTV Corp, REDtone International and NasionCom. The MCMC had originally intended to announce the winners by 31 October, but has yet to provide a revised timetable for issuing the concessions or confirm how many licences will be granted. It has requested that all applicants re-submit their applications outlining nationwide business plans, as it will not grant concessions to companies looking to roll out only regional services. The government has said it will offer as many as four WiMAX licences, though it may only distribute two concessions in the first tranche.

Source: Telegeography

Malaysia will issue two licenses to telecommunication operators next year to provide fourth generation wireless high speed Internet services, a senior minister has told AFP. Lim Keng Yaik, energy, water and communications minister said the government hoped the winning bidders will roll out the WiMAX network nationwide in 2007.

The government in July cancelled the original tender for the WiMAX 2.3 gigahertz spectrum, saying that the specifications were not in line with the ministry's policy. Lim has said the government hopes to issue up to four licences.

The original tender had attracted bids from 17 companies, including Malaysia's top communications firm Maxis Communications and DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd.

Source: Yahoo News Asia.

Thailand’s Information and Communication Technology Ministry has announced ambitious plans to invest THB35 billion (USD954 million) to upgrade the country's telecoms network. In a statement the ICT Minister Sitthichai Pokaiyaudom said the PSTN would soon be ‘obsolete’ and that it needed an urgent overhaul if it was to keep pace with private operators that are investing heavily in new technologies. According to The Nation, the government says it plans to spend THB20 billion to develop Thai Mobile’s network and a further THB15 billion to expand and improve CAT’s CDMA infrastructure.

Source: Telegeography

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) today issued a call for organisations to bid for the "Centralised Database Administrator" role as part of the country's move towards True Number Portability from the fourth quarter of 2007. The IDA's Request For Proposal (RFP) seeks an operator-neutral administrator, to be appointed in early 2007. Consumers have welcomed the True Number Portability solution, with the expectation of greater service and choices in the telecoms market. The move towards True Number Portability will spur greater competition and growth in the liberalised telecoms market, which sees mobile penetration of more than 100 per cent today. The Centralised Database Administrator will be required, for a start, to develop a centralised database system that will inter-work with the fixed line and mobile services providers to enable the provision of number portability services to all end-users in Singapore. The appointed Centralised Database Administrator will also operate the centralised database system for seven years from the launch of True Number Portability.

Source: IDA, Singapore.

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore and the International Telecommunication Union have agreed today to collaborate in developing a new executive training programme in the area of information and communication technology (ICT) policy and regulation. A Letter of Intent was inked today, following a call for such a collaboration in a speech made earlier this week by Dr Lee Boon Yang, Singapore's Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya (Turkey), currently in session 6-24 November 2006. It is intended to provide this executive programme through Singapore's e-Government Leadership Centre."This programme is expected to enable Singapore to share our experience in deploying ICT for the public, private and people sectors," said Dr Lee. "We are very happy to collaborate with ITU to help developing countries catalyse their ICT developments to bridge the Digital Divide". He added that Singapore, with 25 years of experience in developing ICT, is fully aware of the benefits it can bring to social and economic development. "The e-Government Leadership Centre provides a collaborative learning experience. Participants would have the opportunity to study and analyse the Singapore model and to derive relevant strategies for their own country's ICT development," Dr Lee said. See http://www.ida.gov.sg/idaweb/marketing/index.jsp

Indonesia’s dominant telecoms company PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) says it will take part in the country’s proposed fibre-optic network construction tender which is valued at USD1.5 billion and expected to be launched in October next year. Telkom managing director Arwin Rasyid confirmed his company’s interest, adding he was still considering the best options for Telkom to take part in the process. Speaking to reporters in Jakarta, Rasyid said: ‘Whether or not we form a consortium, Telkom will certainly play a large role in constructing the fibre-optic network’, adding that one aim would be to increase the capacity of the incumbent’s network at the same time to support increased demand both for itself and its subsidiaries such as mobile arm Telkomsel and PT Telkom Vision, a pay-TV broadcast provider.

Source: Telegeography

The Australian Communications and Media Authority welcomes the decision of Justice Nicholson in the Federal Court in Perth today to award a pecuniary penalty of $4.5 million against Clarity1 Pty Ltd and $1 million against its managing director, Mr Wayne Mansfield, for contravening the Spam Act 2003 (Spam Act).

ACMA’s prosecution of Clarity1 is the first prosecution under the Spam Act.

On 13 April 2006, Justice Nicholson found that both Clarity1 and Mr Mansfield were in breach of the Act for both sending unsolicited commercial electronic messages, and for using harvested address lists.

Among other matters, ACMA submitted to the Federal Court that Clarity1 Pty Ltd and Mr Wayne Mansfield sent out at least 231 million commercial emails in twelve months after the Spam Act 2003 commenced in April 2004, with most of these messages unsolicited and in breach of the Act.

‘ACMA’s action in this case underscores its vigilant approach to the enforcement of the Spam Act and combating spam,’ said Mr Chris Chapman, ACMA Chairman. ‘Spam causes significant inconvenience to individuals and businesses: disrupts email delivery, clogs up computer systems, reduces productivity, wastes time, irritates users and raises the cost of internet access fees.’

‘This judgement provides a strong warning to Australian spammers that contraventions of the Spam Act can result in substantial penalties being awarded against individuals and organisations, ’said Mr Chapman.

‘ACMA has previously demonstrated its determination to pursue important matters vigorously, a determination that will be a key attribute in its continuing success across its broad regulatory responsibilities,’ he added.

For more information visit ACMA´s webpage

Armenia’s national PTO ArmenTel has signed a contract with ZTE of China for the supply of the country’s first DSL broadband network, writes Telecompaper. In August this year ArmenTel selected ZTE to build it a CDMA450 wireless in the local loop (WiLL) network to complement its existing fixed line infrastructure, providing coverage in areas not presently served by the telco’s PSTN.

According to TeleGeography's GlobalComms database, ArmenTel was established in March 1995 as a joint venture between the Ministry of Communications and US-owned Trans World Telecom. In 1997 the MTC launched the privatisation of the telco, and at the end of that year Greece's Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE) won an international tender, paying USD143 million for a 90% stake in ArmenTel in March 1998. OTE has been looking to offload its holding however, and in October 2006 UAE-based operator Etisalat was reported to have won the tender for the stake, although it has since denied this.
Source: Telegeography

Taiwan’s telecoms regulator has published details of its plans for WiMAX wireless broadband licensing. The National Communications Commission (NCC) says it will offer nine six-year WiMAX concessions in the second quarter of next year. DigiTimes reports that three 90MHz bands will be available in each of three regions: northern, central and southern Taiwan. Companies can apply for several licences but will be awarded a maximum of one, although mergers and co-operation with other licence winners will be allowed to enable operators to create a national footprint. Networks must be built out within one year of licensing.

Source: Telegeography

Japan’s leading wireless carrier by subscribers NTT DoCoMo has posted a 20% drop in net profits for the fiscal first half year ended 30 September, on the back of rising costs related to its efforts to migrate customers to its 3G mobile platform. In a statement the company said net profits for the six-month period fell to JPY309.8 billion (USD2.6 billion), down from JPY385.3 billion in the corresponding year-ago period, and operating profit fell 7.4% to JPY516.9 billion, despite a 0.4% rise in revenues to JPY2.38 trillion. Operating costs were up 2.8% at JPY1.87 trillion as DoCoMo spent more to encourage a speedier transfer of customers to its 3G network FOMA and on preparing for the introduction of mobile number portability (MNP) from 24 October. The drop in net profits was due in part to the absence of the one-off gains reported in the first half of last year when DoCoMo booked a special capital gain of JPY62 billion from the sale of its 20% stake in Hutchison 3G UK Holdings Ltd.

At the end of September DoCoMo had 29.1 million people signed up to FOMA, or 55.8% of its total user base. It hopes to boost the proportion of 3G users to around 66.6% by the end of its fiscal year in March 2007.
Source: Telegeography

Millicom International Cellular (MIC) has ended its management contract with the Iranian cellular operator Rafsanjan Industrial Complex, which operates under the name Taliya. MIC says Taliya’s inability to sign interconnection agreements has meant it has been unable to build a business which delivers decent returns. Taliya has less than 1% of Iran’s mobile market, which is a virtual monopoly for the state-owned Telecommunications Company (TCI).

Source: Telegeography

The government of Hong Kong announced yesterday that it will launch a public consultation on proposals to auction a new third-generation mobile licence. The state plans to allow the Special Administrative Region’s existing W-CDMA operators to bid for a CDMA2000 1xEV-DO standard licence, said Director-General of Telecommunications Au Man Ho. Hong Kong has four existing 3G operators using W-CDMA platforms: Hutchison Telephone Company (3), SmarTone (SmarTone-Vodafone), CSL New World Mobility and PCCW Mobile (Sunday Communications). According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, there are around a million 3G users in Hong Kong, where Hutchison leads the market with 600,000 subscribers at end-June.

Source: Telegeography

Vietnamese ISP Financial Promoting Technology (FPT) Telecom has revealed that it submitted an application for fixed line telephony licence to the Ministry of Post and Telematics (MPT) in August 2006. FPT is one of four companies presently licensed to pilot fixed WiMAX across the country before the MPT’s intended commercialisation of the technology in 2007, when it is thought full mobile operating licences will be awarded. If licensed, FPT would provide its fixed line service over the cable infrastructure of its broadband service.
Meanwhile another of the companies testing WiMAX, state owned incumbent telco VNPT, has reported decreased income in its fixed and VoIP revenues since the start of the year. Its charges for VoIP, fixed by the MPT, and are the highest in the country, while competitors are free to set their own. The telco’s monthly ARPU for fixed line and IP telephony services is reported to be VND100,000 (USD6.25).

Source. Telegeography

Israel’s antitrust authority has approved the operational merger between alternative fixed line operators NetVision and Barak ITC, and corporate services provider GlobCall Communications. The transaction remains subject to it obtaining other approvals, however, and there is no assurance that the transactions will be consummated.

Barak is a subsidiary of Clal Industries which, alongside NetVision investors Discount Investment Corporation (DIC) and Elron Electronic Industries, is part of Israel’s powerful IDB Group. Under the terms of the deal, NetVision will purchase 100% of Barak in exchange for 46.5% its shares. Upon completion, NetVision will acquire all of GlobCall in exchange for 7% of the share capital of the merged NetVision-Barak company. The deals value NetVision at between USD122 million and USD142 million, Barak at between USD105 million and USD121 million, and GlobCall at between USD15 million and USD21 million.
Source: Telegeography

Telecoms operators in Thailand can now apply for licences to provide wireless broadband internet access including WiMAX services, following an announcement by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), reports local newspaper The Nation. The regulator has invited applications for the use of the 2.5GHz and 3.5GHz spectrum bands, although the 5GHz band has not yet been made available. Wireless broadband spectrum was allocated to True Corp, TOT Corp and Shin Satellite (ShinSat) by an earlier regulatory regime. ShinSat holds 3.5GHz spectrum, TOT owns frequencies in the 2.4GHz band, and True's pay-TV operator, UBC True, has a concession for the 2.5GHz range. The NTC’s WiMAX licensing plans had previously been held up by a debate on frequency access for the telecoms and broadcasting industries, but it said this week that a general offer of WiMAX concessions is in line with the Council of State's ruling that it could pursue spectrum management activities in the absence of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), as long as the activities did not relate to broadcasting spectrums

Source: Telegeography

The government of Macau yesterday awarded third-generation mobile telephony licences to Hutchison Telephone Macau (owned by Hong Kong’s Hutchison Telecommunications International), China Unicom’s local subsidiary Macau Unicom and local operator Companhia de Telecomunicacoes de Macau. The winners beat bids from Hong Kong’s SmarTone-Vodafone and Macau’s Kong Seng Paging.

Source: Telegeography

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has declared that the recent launch of IPTV services by state-owned telco Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) is illegal, according to the Economic Times. The TRAI says that IPTV is not covered by the country’s Cable Televisions Networks (Regulations) Act and may only be launched by companies holding a Unified Access Service Licence (USAL). At present MTNL holds a cable TV operating concession but no USAL. The TRAI has asked the ministry of information and broadcasting for a legal ruling on the issue.

Source: Telegography

Japanese telecoms group Softbank yesterday heralded the start of a ‘price war’ in the domestic mobile market as Japanese operators braced themselves for the introduction of mobile number portability (MNP), designed to make it easier for users to switch their mobile phone provider, which becomes effective from today. Masayoshi Son, the president and CEO of Softbank is offering customers who switch to his network a range of incentives or discounted package plans in a bid to stir up the already competitive sector. Citing his mission to ‘make mobile prices [in Japan] the lowest in the world’, Son confirmed the industry’s worst fears by announcing his intention to cut profit margins in an already tight market. The Financial Times writes that Son, who previously slashed fees for internet access against NTT, could spark a price war which would wipe up to USD79 billion off the revenue sheets of the country’s cellcos.

Critics of Japan’s MNP plans are sceptical however, saying that it is arguable whether Softbank’s move will provoke mass switching. Japan traditionally has very low churn rates and high levels of customer loyalty. However the UK paper cites a recent survey published by Mitsubishi Research which found that about six in ten people surveyed saw the ability to switch to a cheaper service more easily as a ‘merit’ of number portability. In addition, a further 5% of mobile customers – or about 4.5 million people – are ‘eager’ to switch service provider when the new rules apply.

Source: Telegeography

State-run Indian telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) says it will launch a commercial IPTV service in January 2007. The service will initially be available to broadband subscribers in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore. The telco began piloting IPTV in the city of Pune on the country’s Independence Day on 15 August. Pricing for the service has yet to be revealed. BSNL’s sister company MTNL launched the country’s first commercial IPTV services in Delhi and Mumbai this month.

Source: Telegeography

Iran’s Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology (MCIT) has confirmed that Irancell has finally launched its first services. The Gulf Times quotes ministry official Masoud Fateh, who said: ‘Distribution of 300,000 SIM cards by Irancell, the first private operator, has started in the cities of Tehran, Mashhad (northeast) and Tabriz (northwest) under the first phase.’ The cellco, which is 49%-owned by MTN of South Africa, was originally due to launch last year and now plans to have operations in 50 cities by the end of the first quarter of 2007.

Source: Telegeography

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is confident that mobile number portability (MNP) will be introduced by December 2007, despite lengthy delays in legislating the service, writes The Star local daily. MNP was first proposed by the government in 2004 and initially scheduled to be implemented in 2005. However, it was decided that more research needed to be conducted and in September 2005 the MCMC published a public inquiry paper inviting submissions on the service. After a period of silence, the regulator has now announced that it is still looking at how to legislate and implement MNP.

Source: Teleeography

California-based wireless equipment supplier Proxim has won a contract to supply a fixed WiMAX network to Asia Pacific Telecom Group (APTG) of Taiwan. The network will be deployed in the city of Taichung, which is the country’s third largest city with a population of around one million. The APTG group consists of three firms: Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom (APBT), Asia Pacific Broadband Wireless (APBW) and Asia Pacific Online (APOL), with APBT responsible for the new WiMAX system. The WiMAX network will complement APBW’s existing CDMA-based cellular network, which is already carrying 3G services.

Source. Telegeography

The Indian government has approved plans to utilise the country’s Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) to ramp up the availability of broadband internet and mobile telephony services in rural and remote areas, according to Dow Jones quoting a Cabinet spokesman. All telecom operators contribute 5% of their annual licence fees to the USOF. The government proposes to use INR50 billion (USD1.1 billion) from the USOF to build out mobile and broadband infrastructure to areas not yet covered by operators. ‘The Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Ordinance 2006 will enable the USOF to extend financial support for provision of mobile services in rural and remote areas,’ spokesman Priyaranjan Dasmunsi said.

Sorce: Telegeography

Bangladeshi industry watchdog the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has begun awarding voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) licences, however, critics are concerned that its sudden enthusiasm to grant concessions will merely result in it allowing powerful illegal operators to get licences, without there being a common operating platform to allow the government to track earnings.

According to local newspaper The Daily Star, the BTRC has received 51 applications for VoIP licences, including bids from 31 ISPs, 14 PSTN operators and six mobile phone companies. But without a common platform, powerful illegal VoIP operators which are among these applicants will now easily get BTRC licences, and will not only eat up the market of Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) but also deprive the government of international telecom revenue.

Source: Telegeography

According to INQ7.net, the country’s incumbent fixed line operator Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) has ‘temporarily barred’ incoming calls from its rival Innove Communications' voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) service, while the pair work out an interconnection agreement. PLDT has reportedly filed a complaint with the regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), alleging that Innove, a subsidiary of Globe Telecom, has been routing international calls to PLDT’s network without an interconnect agreement. Globe has countered that there is no case to answer as the matter was resolved several months ago, and says its GlobeQuest Webphone service is only available for domestic use. However, PLDT says that some Globe subscribers have used the service abroad. A spokesman for Globe says the company aims to resolve the problem by the end of 2006.

Source: Telegeography

TM Group (formerly known as Telekom Malaysia) is in discussions with the regulators to deregulate fixed-line telephony rates to allow the company more flexibility in pricing its offerings, according to local press citing the company's chief executive officer for Malaysian business, Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa. The company executive said TM was in constant talks with the government and authorities on the matter. However, no official proposal has been made.

Source: Global Insight.

The Singaporean government said it planned to cover most of the country with public wireless internet access by next year and provide nearly 10,000 subsidised computers to low-income students to offer digital opportunities to all its citizens, according to Dow Jones reports citing Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Lee said the government would increase the number of public wireless hot spots from 900 to 5,000 by next year as part of the plan. Lee said about 10,000 households with school-going children would qualify for subsidised computers, and efforts would be made to help the elderly and disabled use the internet.

Source: Global Insight.

The Malaysian government plans to issue up to four WiMAX licences to boost broadband coverage and penetration rate, the Business Times reports, citing Malaysian Minister of Energy, Water and Communications Lim Keng Yaik. However, the minister added that the government might issue two licences first before giving out the rest. He said that the ministry, along with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), was in talks with a consultant on the cost of operating a WiMAX service, which would run on the 2.3 GHz spectrum. He also said that the government might not re-tender the WiMAX spectrum but evaluate the applications already submitted by the candidates. On the price of the WiMAX licence, the minister said it would be much lower than that which companies paid to get a 3G spectrum, which was between 50 million ringgit and 55 million ringgit.

Source: Global Insight.

Singaporean telecoms operator StarHub has introduced a cable broadband service that allows users to access a selected list of websites and services, such as Hotmail and the online game Maple Story, for free. The move comes in the face of increased competition in the high speed internet access segment in Singapore. The limited broadband service, a revamp of StarHub's existing FlexiSurf offering, gives users a download speed of 4Mbps and allows them to check their e-mail on Yahoo and Hotmail, chat using Windows Live Messenger, and download songs from StarHub's Play Music website. They can also access local educational and e-government websites, once they have paid StarHub SGD78.75 for a cable modem.
Source: Telegeography

The Australian government has released the prospectus for the sale of one-third of its 51.8% controlling stake in Telstra. The sale is worth an estimated AUD8 billion (USD6 billion) and is the largest offering in a telco since a France Télécom share offer in 2004. The shares – to be listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on 20 November – will be sold in two stages, the first being at AUD2 a share, and the second in May 2008 at a price that will be determined in an institutional offer to close on 17 November.

Source: Telegeography

ITU held a Global Seminar on Quality of Service and Consumer Protection on 31 August and 1 September 2006, in Geneva, Switzerland. The meeting attracted more than 115 participants from 43 countries worldwide representing Regulatory Authorities, Policy-makers, the ICT private sector and other stakeholders.

The first day focused on quality of service (QoS) and examined issues such as QoS measuring, monitoring, what regulators do in this field and QoS in a NGN environment. The second day was devoted to consumer protection in the digital age. Presentations and discussions focused on the role of regulators and other specialized bodies in providing consumer protection, handling disputes, addressing specific issues such as mobile roaming charges and consumer portection in a NGN environment. These issues generated active discussions among stakeholders from various regions.

The Chairman's report in now available on the event's webpage at: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/Events/Seminars/2006/QoS-consumer/index.html

The increased competition in the broadband market of late has produced another first for Singapore -- free surfing to popular websites like Hotmail and access to online games like Maple Story.

StarHub yesterday launched a broadband service that allows users to access a selected list of Internet websites and services without paying any subscription fees.

Source: Asia Media.

Telstra has today launched its much vaunted AUD1 billion (USD746 million) HSDPA mobile broadband network, three months ahead of schedule. The new infrastructure – which it claims to be the largest of its type in the world – has been rolled out in the 850MHz frequency band to cover over a quarter of Australia’s landmass and more than 98% of the population. Rollout was completed in just ten months. Offered under the banner NEXT G, the new network carries twelve Foxtel television channels and sport and movie downloads at speeds up to five times faster than any other 3G network in the country. ‘From today, almost every Australian is going to have access to nationwide, very high speed mobiles and internet,’ Telstra group managing director consumer and small business David Moffatt said. ‘It is a versatile, high capacity network with head room for higher speeds in the months and years ahead, chief executive Sol Trujillo added. According to Telstra, NEXT G customers will experience network download speeds averaging between 550kbps and 1.5Mbps, with peak network speeds of up to 3.6Mbps, a figure which is expected to rise to 14.4Mbps early next year. Telstra will now begin to migrate its 1.7 million CDMA mobile customers to the NEXT G network by January 2008.


According to the GSM Association, of the 123 W-CDMA networks in operation in 55 countries, more than half are HSDPA enabled. Australia is the 39th country to go live with the technology and Telstra the 64th network to commence HSDPA-based commercial services. More than 58 HSDPA-enabled devices have been launched by 18 suppliers, according to the GSA – which represents global mobile industry manufacturers. Sixteen of these devices operate in the 850 MHz frequency band, in support of network deployments such as Telstra’s.
Source: Telegeography

KDDI Corp says it added 312,500 new mobile phone subscribers in September, thanks to the increased popularity of its third-generation cellular service. Japan’s number two mobile operator by subscribers after NTT DoCoMo ended the month with 24.486 million users. The number of people signed up to its CDMA 1x service climbed by a net 334,500 to 23.767 million, helping offset a 22,000 net decline in cdmaOne customers, to 719,400.

Source: Telegeography

Sigve Brekke, the chief executive of Thai cellco DTAC, has joined the CEO of rival operator True Move, Supachai Chearavanont, in condemning market leader AIS’ recent price undercutting as an abuse of its ‘significant market power’, reports the Bangkok Post. ‘In previous price wars, AIS was always the loser in terms of quarterly results,’ said Mr Brekke, adding: ‘DTAC reported an increase of 11.8% in first-half [2006] revenue, while True Move posted a contraction of 1.4% [compared to a 5% drop for AIS in the same period]. I'm disappointed in what AIS is doing now. I don't understand why AIS didn't learn from past experiences, when operators faced a drop in revenue while users faced connection difficulties.. I can guarantee that customers will not avoid network congestion problems because DTAC and True Move will be forced to fight back with more competitive promotions to keep our market shares.’ Mr Brekke also urged the regulator, the NTC, to get involved to resolve the problem.

Upon launching new lower tariffs this week, AIS expressed confidence that its network capacity could handle any sudden surge in call traffic – as long as the average voice call length was no more than seven minutes. It claims it now has the capacity to handle 20 million subscribers, expected to rise to 24 million by the end of the year, and that the successful connection rate for its customers making calls to other networks is 96% during off-peak periods. ‘We needed to go ahead with our undercutting promotions in order to win customers back to AIS services after losing big slices in the net new subscriber segment to DTAC and True Move,’ argued the company’s president Wichian Mektrakarn, who went on to say that ‘the move was also aimed at increasing our subscriber base to enhance our economies-of-scale advantage and offset a 5% contraction in AIS's revenue in the first half of this year.’ DTAC and True Move were on the verge of petitioning the NTC over alleged price dumping by AIS, which is offering what they claim is a ‘subsidised rate’ – as low as THB1 (USD0.026) per call. Both said they plan to introduce new tariffs to match AIS’ flat rate offer.

Source: Telegeography

Bharti Airtel, India's biggest mobile phone company by subscribers, has handed back CDMA spectrum covering Madhya Pradesh to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for reassignment. The regulator is requesting operators return unused frequencies to help plug a shortfall in spectrum and pave the way for the launch of new wireless services. Airtel received the CDMA frequencies when it was first licensed in 1997, and is only returning the spectrum under duress. It claimed that it was asked to pay inflated licence fees for the CDMA spectrum following the conversion to a Unified Access Services Licence (UASL) scheme in 2003, and instead opted to transfer its 20,000 CDMA users to its GSM network, before reluctantly returning the frequencies. State-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) is among other operators to have been asked to give up excess CDMA spectrum.

Source: Telegeography

Telecom New Zealand says it is being realistic about potential losses of market share in the wake of regulatory changes which force it to offer its local loop networks to competitors. Dow Jones quotes Telecom’s chief financial officer Marko Bogoievski, who says: ‘Competition has always been the thing you've got to keep an eye on. We're acutely aware of other competitors' capabilities.’ Vodafone, Telecom’s sole rival in the country’s cellular market, has recently announced plans to enter the fixed line sector with its introduction of converged fixed-mobile options and it is also offering cellular data packages which are aimed at winning over Telecom’s wireline internet users. Bogoievski says the UK-owned firm is a ‘formidable’ competitor and the threat of competition should be taken seriously. He did not give details of how much market share Telecom is expecting to lose.

BDT will organize an Executive Level Training, jointly with infoDev, on 2-3 December 2006, to be held at the Hotel Kowloon Shangri-La, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China, immediately prior to ITU World Telecom 2006. The Executive Level Training workshop, organized in cooperation with the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA), Hong Kong, China, is designed for the heads of national regulatory authorities and senior executives of national policy-makers. It is based on the joint ITU-infoDev ICT Regulation Toolkit, and will focus on New Technologies, New Thinking: ICT Regulation in a Changing World. More information about this event is available on TREG at http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/Events/Seminars/2006/ceotraining/index.html

Heads of regulatory authorities and senior executives of policy-making bodies are encouraged to attend.

Twenty-nine foreign companies have filed applications for licences to run value-added telecoms services in China, according to China Daily reports citing a ministry official. The Ministry of Information Industry (MII) issued a circular on 13 July this year, requiring all foreign companies operating value-added telecoms services to apply for licences, as many of them were running services without the proper paperwork. Wang Jianchao, head of the division of foreign economic and trade cooperation with the Department of Overall Planning under the MII, said that since July, 29 companies had applied for licences. Five companies, including MSN China, were successful; Wang added that another 14 firms had passed reviews.

Source: Global Insight.

Stopping net neutrality legislation is central to helping U.S. telcos and ISPs compete against Chinese counterparts, an economist said at a TeleConsensus and U.S. Chamber of Commerce forum Fri. The cable system needs competition and innovation, said John Rutledge, acting pres. of Mundell International U. Business School in Beijing, who used to be an adviser to the Bush Administration on tax policy. Advocacy of net neutrality by Google and other Internet companies is "absolutely rational," Rutledge said, noting that they're trying to protect their profit margins. Keeping the status quo would help suppress their costs, he said. But the Bells and cable companies need a change, Rutledge said. The cable companies have put millions into U.S. broadband networks on which Internet companies are getting a free ride, he said. A net neutrality law would leave cable companies no incentive to spend more on their networks, Rutledge said: "Essentially the entire system will grind to a halt." "The U.S. IT industry will not dry up -- it will move overseas" to nations with better infrastructure, Rutledge said. For instance, China's telecom infrastructure could accommodate a growing IT industry, he said. Big cities there have strong wireless service, Rutledge said: "It's clear that the telecom industry has experienced an incredible rate of building out." The problem isn't hypothetical, Rutledge said. His venture firm, Rutledge Capital, was "interested in a Tennessee company that had its manufacturing based in Mississippi," he said: "Memphis is a good area in terms of fiber coverage. However, the manufacturing plant in Mississippi had no broadband." Plant and hq couldn't communicate adequately. "The physical location of the plant might as well have been worlds away," he said. In fact, Rutledge said, the company moved its operations around the world, because China's communications system was so strong.

Source: Bryce Baschuk, Warren's Washington Internet Daily.

Thailand's telecoms regulator said today that it was on track to liberalise the country's telecoms sector, despite concerns that last week’s military coup could delay some key policy developments, Reuters reports. National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) chairman Choochart Promphrasit said that the regulator would complete drafting terms for 3G mobile services by the year-end. However, he did not give details of when the 3G licences would be issued.

Source: Global Insight.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has shortlisted four frequency bands for the allocation of spectrum for WiMAX services, in its bid to ensure that India keeps pace with the rest of the world in WiMAX introduction, the Economic Times reports. The four shortlisted bands include the 2.5-2.69 GHz, 3.4-3.6 GHz, 2.3-2.4 GHz, and 700 MHz bands. However, the newspaper said that the DoT plans could face challenges; the Department of Space (DoS) opposed the allocation of WiMAX spectrum in some of the above bands. For instance, regarding the 2.5-2.69 GHz band, the DoS has said that this is currently used for various satellite-based mobile and broadcast applications, including disaster-warning dissemination, radio, and networking. The DoS added that the 3.4-3.6 GHz band has been used for fixed satellite-service downlink for the past seven years, and that there were contractual commitments to continue this in the long term.

Source: Global Insight.

Armenian fixed line incumbent ArmenTel has suspended services to a number of companies it claims have been offering VoIP without a requisite licence, writes Telecompaper. ArmenTel is the only company licensed to provide VoIP in the country. In 1998 the Armenian government granted it a 15-year monopoly on the provision of all telephony services, under Licence N60. However, five years later the state said it would revoke ArmenTel's exclusivity on the provision of wireless and internet access services, having accused the telco of abusing its dominant status with poor network quality and high service costs. At the time, ArmenTel's Greek parent OTE responded to the threat by launching a USD300 million compensatory claim against the government through the international courts, and twelve months of litigation followed. The court actions only stopped in November 2004.

Source: Telegeography

Japanese telecoms company eAccess has signed a 3G roaming deal with rival NTT DoCoMo allowing it to launch a nationwide mobile service in March 2008, before its own network rollout is complete. eAccess’s mobile arm will piggyback on DoCoMo’s network in areas outside the major cities of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, and it hopes to offer a limited wireless data service from March 2007. According to reports from Reuters, the roaming agreement will expire in October 2010, by which time eAccess’s network deployment will be complete. eAccess has contracted Ericsson and Huawei Technologies to carry out the work.

 

Source: Telegeography

Australian incumbent Telstra again looks to be on a collision course with the country’s competition watchdog, this time over proposed changes to its pricing structure for wholesale voice services. The telco has suggested cutting the connection fee on local services to AUD0.093 per call from the start of 2007, down from AUD0.136 currently, whilst long-distance telephony and calls to mobiles would double from AUD0.01 to AUD0.022 per minute. However, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says it ‘is not satisfied that Telstra's proposed prices… are reasonable’. The commission has now called for more submissions on the issue before its 29 September deadline, after which it will make a formal ruling. The news is another major blow to Telstra, which has been locked in a long running battle with the ACCC to raise its standard unbundled local loop (ULL) charges.

New Iraqi telco VitalTel has announced that it has contracted Tecore Wireless Systems to deploy a wireless in the local loop (WiLL) CDMA 1xEV-DO ready network that will initially have capacity for 200,000 subscribers across ten cities in central and southern Iraq. VitalTel, trading under the name Moutiny, expects to launch services in a few weeks.

Source: Telegeography

India’s Reliance Infocomm has confirmed that it has applied to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for GSM spectrum in 21 of the country’s 23 telecoms circles. Operating under the IndiaMobile brand, Reliance offers CDMA services in twenty circles, and GSM services in eight, mainly in the east of the country. The application for more GSM spectrum comes amid increasing complaints from Reliance about the level of royalties it pays Qualcomm for the purchase of CDMA handsets, arguing that high costs have restricted its ability to compete with operators offering cut price GSM handsets. It has applied for permission to roll out GSM networks in some regions where it already offers CDMA services.

Source: Telegeography

Filipino internet service provider (ISP) Mozcom has launched a VoIP service with integrated webcasting technology under the brand name VCall. Mozcom, the country’s first commercial ISP, was awarded a licence to operate VoIP services by the regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) in August 2005.

Source: Telegeography

US-based Providence Equity Partners is in talks to acquire a third of India's Idea Cellular from Aditya Birla Group for more than INR30 billion (USD650 million), according to the Business Standard. Birla has been looking to offload 33.33% of Idea since acquiring Tata Group’s 48.14% stake in the cellco for USD969 million, raising its own indirect holding to 98.3%. Idea declined to comment on the story.

According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, Idea launched GSM services in Gujurat in January 1997. Originally known as Birla Tata AT&T Communications after its three major investors, the cellco was renamed Idea in May 2002. Cingular Wireless of the US acquired a stake via its takeover of AT&T Wireless in late 2004 and put it up for sale. In November Telekom Malaysia and Singapore Technologies Telemedia (ST Telemedia) agreed to buy the shares, but the deal was spiked by the Indian government, citing infringements of regional cross-holding regulations. Finally, in July 2005, after months of negotiations, existing Idea shareholders Tata Group and Aditya Birla Group agreed to buy equal parts of Cingular's 32.91% stake for a total of USD300 million. The deal brought Tata’s holding in Idea to a little over 48% and Birla's to just over 50%, and included the provision for Birla to take the entire stake if Tata fell foul of the same regulations that halted the Singapore-Malaysian buyout bid due to its existing telecoms interests. Idea currently operates in nine of India’s 23 telecoms circles and is the fifth largest operator by subscribers.

Source: Telegeography

Japan’s three mobile operators, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Vodafone KK, have begun wooing customers in earnest ahead of the introduction of mobile number portability (MNP) on 24 October. DoCoMo, the market leader by subscribers, has issued brochures comparing the tariffs and rates of the three cellcos, while Vodafone – to be renamed Softbank Mobile on 1 October but to retain the Vodafone brand name – has offered a pay-by-installments option for the purchase of mobile handsets. Meanwhile, KDDI has announced twelve new handsets that will be launched before the end of the year, as well as planning to deploy 1xEV-DO Rev. A in December. The two smaller cellcos have already begun accepting reservations by users who wish to switch; DoCoMo will begin doing so soon.

According to Kyodo News International, a local news service, sources close to the market say that many of DoCoMo’s customers are business users and have refrained from moving to another operator due to the absence of MNP, and that the forthcoming introduction of MNP could see DoCoMo go on the defensive. Elsewhere, claims have been made suggesting that 25% of Vodafone’s subscriber base will seek to move. However, some analysts state that MNP will not have such a great effect due to the costs involved, chiefly a migration fee of approximately JPY5,000 (USD43) and the possibility that users will also need to buy new handsets should they elect to switch.

 

Source: Telegeography

 

EVN (formerly VP) Telecom’s proposal to allow its E-Phone subscribers to have network coverage across all three of the country’s regions have been denied by the regulator, the Ministry of Post and Telematics (MPT). The MPT ruled the proposal oversteps the remit of fixed line services, which are numbered according to region, and it is unreasonable for E-Phone subscribers to be able to place calls if they move between the north, south and central regions. The MPT has told EVN that if it wants to be granted regional roaming rights, E-Phone must be developed as a mobile network and not a fixed wireless network.

 

Source: Telegeography

Warid Telecom Bangladesh on Saturday signed interconnect agreements with five local telephone operators, and announced that it would launch GSM services before the end of October. Chief Executive Officer of Warid International, Muneer Farooqui signed the agreements with regional fixed line providers OneTel Communications, Westec (BayPhone), Jalalabad Telecom (BijoyPhone), National Telecom and Dhaka Telephone. TeleGeography notes that Warid won Bangladesh's sixth mobile licence in December 2005.

 

Source: Telegeography

Singapore's Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) is to test a free wireless internet service later this month to coincide with the annual meeting of the boards of governors of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. The IDA revealed that the month-long Wi-Fi trial will cover parts of downtown Singapore where the meetings will be held. Five nearby shopping centres will also be covered, with users able to surf the internet for free in these areas at speeds of 512kbps. The regulatory body added that it wanted to gain feedback from users ahead of plans to roll out a free nationwide Wi-Fi service, called Wireless@SG, in January 2007.

Source: Telegeography

   

Bangladeshi fixed line operator RanksTel has announced that its CDMA2000 1x WiLL local telephony services covered 71 sub-districts (upazilas) in 24 districts by the end of August, and that it will expand its network to all provinces outside the capital ‘within a few months’. TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database notes that RanksTel was Bangladesh’s fourth fixed-wireless operator when it launched in mid-2005 and had 25,000 lines in operation in Sylhet (north-east zone) and Chittagong (south-east) by the end of February 2006. In late August it launched new tariffs under the Shadeshi Phone banner; it claims it offers the lowest call rates in the country.

 

Source: Telegeography

The ICT Eye, the latest innovation of the ITU-D, is a consolidated website that puts at your fingertips the latest data available on ICT trends. From a single entry point, users can get an instant country snapshot that includes ICT indicators, regulatory and policy information, competition levels, tariff policies, operators, and more. Such a unified system will enable ITU to better track the development and use of ICTs, and to measure countries efforts to build the information society.

See http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/icteye/Default.aspx

India’s Reliance Communications has inaugurated the 2.56TB Falcon submarine cable system, connecting India's financial hub Mumbai to eleven countries in the Middle East. The 11,859km system reaches Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, amongst others, and is part of Reliance’s Flag Telecom Global Network, which has cables running through 35 countries spanning four continents. The company says Falcon will provide cheaper bandwidth to retail and commercial users in all eleven countries.

Meanwhile, India’s state run telcos Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), have revealed plans to build a submarine cable system connecting India to Singapore and Malaysia, and to West Asia, the US and Europe. The proposed cables would be laid by Millennium Telecom, a 51/49 joint venture between MTNL and BSNL. The finer details of the USD400 million project are still being negotiated. BSNL launched an undersea cable link to Sri Lanka in June.

Source: Telegeography

South Korea’s much vaunted Wireless Broadband (WiBro — 802.16e) technology has failed to make a significant impact on the market in the two months since launch, according to the Hankyoreh Media Company. KT Corp and SK Telecom (SKT) launched the world’s first WiBro services at the end of June, but take-up has been slow due to limited network coverage and stiff competition from high speed cellular services such as 1xEV-DO, W-CDMA and HSDPA. KT has launched the service in high-demand areas in Seoul and its outskirts, including Sinchon, Gangnam-gu, Seocho-gu, Songpa-gu, Bundang and along the Bundang subway line. It aims to cover all of Seoul and its surrounding cities by early next year. SKT is offering WiBro in six areas in Seoul, including the campuses of Yonsei University, Korea University and Hanyang University. Hankyoreh says that KT had signed up only 479 WiBro customers by the end of August, while SKT had lured a mere 15.

WiBro operates in the 2.3GHz band and its developers are looking to market the home grown technology as a more mobile version of WiMAX (802.16), offering similar capabilities but with added mobility and theoretical maximum data rates of up to 50Mbps at a range of up to 5km. The initial rollout of services offers internet speeds of between 1Mbps and 3Mbps at up to 120km per hour within a 1km radius.

 

Source: Telegeography

China is set to become the world's biggest broadband market in less than a year, according to telecoms research and consultancy firm Ovum. But despite the escalation in subscriber numbers – with a 79% compound annual growth rate in the last three years - China still has a lot more room for growth as its broadband penetration rate lags behind other Asia-Pacific countries at 3.4%. Growth is expected to come from a booming economy, rising incomes, expanding PC penetration as well as new technologies such as VoIP and IPTV and events such as the Olympic Games. Ovum predicts that broadband subscribers will reach 139 million by 2010 with a CAGR of 75%, rising from an anticipated 79 million subscribers in 2007. Currently, DSL services dominate with a market share of 71% and 32 million subscribers as of June 2006. Ethernet-based LAN services, which are popular in high-density areas, account for 26% of the market. Cable modem and wireless technologies contribute a lot less. "Operators are progressively upgrading the network using higher speed technology such as ADSL2+ and VDSL to meet increasing bandwidth demands," said Kevin Lee, senior analyst at Ovum in Hong Kong. The emergence of VoIP in the market will boost wireless broadband, enabling operators to see returns on their wireless local area networks. But growth could be stymied by the need for restructuring in the Chinese market. Up until now, cable operators have had little effect on the broadband market due to regulatory barriers. At present, there are 128 million cable TV service subscribers. However, issues such as a fragmented ownership structure and lack of expertise has prevented operators competing against DSL providers. "China needs to restructure the telecoms industry and it needs to reform the regulatory policy for broadband and IPTV," said Lee. "The possible entry of foreign players in line with WTO commitments could complicate the development of the competitive situation," he added. The deployment of IPTV services is also expected to boost broadband penetration. China Telecom and China Netcom are working with Shanghai Media Group (SMG), the only IPTV licence holder. SMG launched IPTV services in the city of Harbin in May 2005 and in Shanghai later in the year. The company plans to add four more cities in the Heilongjiang province this year. China Telecom and China Netcom are the dominant providers of broadband access in China. They currently have an 87% market share. Other operators include China Tietong, China Unicom and other miscellaneous operators.

Source: Lorraine Turner, Total Telecom.

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) plans to launch a voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) over Wi-Fi service using dual-mode mobile phones, ahead of a planned commercial launch in 2007. SingTel will utilise more than 330 wireless hotspots on the island state to bring the new WLAN service to customers via three Nokia phones – the E60, E61 and N80 – which all support Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based VoIP. All three devices work on 2G, 3G and WLAN networks.

 

Source: Telegeography

Iraq will be offering four new mobile licences when the existing three expire. Orascom Telecom Iraq (Iraqna), which has 2.5 million subscribers in central Iraq, intends to bid when its own licence runs out on 30 September. The new contracts are to run for at least ten years. The trio of existing operators - MTC Atheer, AsiaCell and Iraqna - were issued six month interim licences after the original licences expired at the end of 2005. However, by June 2006 the government was still not ready to award full licences, and the interim concessions were extended to the end of September.

 

Source: Telegeography

Vodafone KK has announced that it will charge its customers JPY2,100 (USD18) to cancel their contracts when transferring their phone number to a different cellco after mobile number portability begins on 24 October. The declaration comes after rival operators NTT DoCoMo and KDDI also set their cancellation fee at JPY2,100. Vodafone KK and KDDI have also revealed that a new contract fee of JPY2,835 will be applied to customers switching from other services, while NTT DoCoMo will charge JPY3,150. It has been rumoured that as many as 25% of Vodafone KK’s subscribers are looking to switch.

In separate but related news, Vodafone KK will legally change its name to Softbank Mobile Corp on 1 October, but will retain the Vodafone brand name.

The Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) kicks off today a Global Seminar on Quality of Service and Consumer Protection in Geneva, Switzerland. The seminar includes distinguised speakers from around the globe representing regulators, operators, and consumers. The focus of the seminar is Quality of Service (QoS) and Consumer Protection that are key components of an enabling environment for ICTs. With the advent and fast roll-out of IP networks paving the way to an all IP (NGN) digital world, the issue of quality of service and consumer protection are not only gaining increased momentum amongst the ICT regulatory community but are of vital interest to all stakeholders worldwide. This seminar provides a unique opportunity to develop a common understanding and provide answers to these timely issues. For more information, and to view the programme and documentation, see: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/Events/Seminars/2006/QoS-consumer/index.html

State-owned telco MTNL looks set to be the first to market IPTV in India, with a commercial launch of its Tri-band service slated for October, according to the Financial Express. The telco has been testing the service in Delhi for more than a year and in Mumbai since July. It will feature a bouquet of free-to-air and pay-TV channels, as well as video-on-demand. Tariffs are yet to be decided but are expected to be similar to current charges of cable TV operators, officials said.

MTNL is still seeking regulatory approval to launch IPTV, which is not currently provided for under either its basic telephony or mobile licences, but is confident of launching by October, or December at the very latest. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has not yet formulated regulations for IPTV, but the government is allowing companies holding unified access service licences (UASLs) to provide services in the interim. Because MTNL does not hold a UASL it must seek special permission to roll out services.

Source: Telegeography

With effect from 26 August, all operators in Oman must implement mobile number portability to conform with the Telecommunications Regulatory Act, the Telecoms Regulatory Authority has said.

Source: Telegeography

Philippine regulator the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has revealed that it is considering plans to curb unfair practices in the telecoms industry, including predatory pricing and limiting small carrier access to the backbone networks of the major telcos. The NTC said that two local exchange carriers - out of the 73 in total - control 75% of the customer base, while in the mobile sector the situation is even more extreme with the biggest two operators - Smart Communications and Globe Telecom - accounting for 96% of the market.

Source: Telegeography

Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) is preparing to launch an auction for two licences to provide fixed-wireless voice and data services, with a starting price of BHD20,000 (USD53,000) each plus annual fees of BHD28,000. An official invitation to take part in the tender will be published on 5 October, according to the TRA. Successful bidders will be able to offer voice telephony and internet access using wireless technology, bypassing the fixed line network of incumbent operator Batelco. The licences will include spectrum in the 3.5GHz band. An memorandum issued on the TRA website provides interested parties with preliminary information about the auction and a draft of the proposed licence. New licensees will also have the right to use Batelco's infrastructure in order to reach end-users, on the basis of commercial agreements between themselves and Batelco. The TRA will be accepting comments on the published memorandum until 21 September.

Source: Telegeography

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has announced that the government will sell around a third of its remaining 51.8% in incumbent operator Telstra to retail and institutional investors in an AUD8 billion (USD6.1 billion) public offering. The state decided against offering its entire stake because Telstra’s share price of AUD3.50 is at a nine-year low. The government’s remaining shares, equal to around 30% of the company, will be held in a state pension fund for at least two further years. Existing Telstra shareholders will reportedly be offered preferential terms to buy into the sale, according to the Financial Times quoting bankers working on the offering. UBS, Goldman Sachs JBWere and ABN Amro Rothschild have been named joint global co-ordinators for the sale.

Source: Telegeography

Following the recent drafting of a bill which would have Russia's major mobile operators' tariffs regulated by the state, the country's IT and Telecommunications Ministry has hinted that it may reject such a move, according to Prime-Tass. The bill, a proposed amendment to an existing law, had been drafted by Maxim Korobov, a deputy in the lower house of parliament. Currently, the Federal Service for Communication Oversight regulates the tariffs set by fixed-line operators with over 25% of the total amount of telephone numbers, or at least 25% of telecommunication traffic capacities, in a certain area or nationwide. Korobov's amendment seeks to expand this ruling to encompass mobile operators, as well as satellite communications, data transmission, and television and radio transmission companies.

 

Source: Global Insight.

Israel’s Finance and Communications Ministries have confirmed that fixed and mobile number portability will be introduced on the original 1 September deadline, after they opted not to employ a three-month extension period provided for under the country’s telecoms law. A number of operators have said they will not be ready for portability until mid-2007 and many were hoping for the process to be delayed until December at least. It is widely expected there will be an appeal against the decision.

Source: Telegeography

Section: General News - Telecom operators seeking potentially lucrative licences for third-generation services may have to participate in auctions, according to a member of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), the Bangkok Post reports.

Sethaporn Cusripitaks said the regulator was considering the auction method now that the Council of State had said that the NTC had the authority to allocate specific parts of the radio spectrum for 3G communications applications.

He said the NTC was now speeding up the drafting of the licensing framework for 3G and expected to complete the job before the end of this year.

Due to the limited spectrum available for 3G, Mr Sethaporn said that there were three methods that the NTC would consider: an auction, "beauty contest" or a combination of the two. The most likely was an auction, he added.

An industry executive said the radio spectrum for 3G in Thailand was scarce, at just 120 Megahertz, and likely to be allocated to only four operators at most.

The auction idea has received a mixed reaction from operators, mindful of the large sums paid in Europe where regulators used the system to allocate 3G frequencies.

3G mobile communications systems provide an enhanced range of multimedia services such as video and high-speed Internet access.

Wichian Mektrakarn, the president of Advanced Info Service, said he believed the auction method would make a 3G licence very expensive. If operators were determined to win at any price, the burden would ultimately fall on consumers, which could make 3G services too expensive to be attractive.

The "beauty contest" approach places more weight on an operator's technical qualifications and business plan, but Mr Wichian said the NTC had no experience in conducting such reviews.

He said a combination would work, if the NTC set clear licensing guidelines.

The NTC is working on the licensing framework now that the Council of State has given a tentative go-ahead.

The government's legal advisory body ruled that the NTC could allocate 3G spectrum to mobile-phone operators without having to await the creation of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

The spectrum in question, the Council said, would be limited to the standard specified by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

NTC commissioner Sudharma Yoonaidharma said questions remained about the Council's interpretation. A lawyer himself, he said the interpretation of permission amounted to an "if clause".However, if the majority of the NTC board agreed it could issue 3G licences, then a unanimous vote should not be necessary, he said.

Gen Choochart Promprasit, the NTC chairman, said the regulator had sought the legal interpretation in light of political infighting over the formation of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), now five years behind schedule.

Under the Frequency Management Act, licensing of 3G services is supposed to require joint consideration by both the NTC and the NBC as the frequencies also have broadcasting applications.

However, the Council of State has taken the view that the NTC has some leeway with regard to certain services.

 

Source: 2006 Thai News Service

Thailand's Council of State has decided that responsibility for the allocation of 3G licences should be held by the country's telecoms regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). The licensing process has so far been delayed by legislation stating that the NTC must wait for the establishment of a new regulatory authority, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC). The NBC is being set up to take control of wireless frequency allocation as part of a move to liberalise Thailand's broadcasting sector.

However, the NTC is keen for 3G licensing to get underway as soon as possible, without waiting for the NBC to become operational. The regulator has said that the criteria for 3G licences will be set by the end of 2006, allowing operators to start their applications straight away, with commercial launch likely by the beginning of 2007. State-owned Thai Mobile is currently the only mobile operator licensed to provide 3G services. The country's three leading operators - AIS, DTAC and True Move - are all expected to bid for the licences, for which they are likely to pay around THB600mn.

All of Thailand's operators have reported increases in customer spending on non-voice services such as SMS and picture messaging. These services now account on average for around 8% of all wireless service revenues, suggesting that Thai consumers are open to the idea of using their mobile handsets to access data and multimedia services. However, building a 3G network is hugely expensive, without any guarantee for operators that customers will spend enough to make their investment worthwhile.

With a 2007 launch still by no means certain, BMI does not believe that 3G will really take off in Thailand until 2008. However, once fully commercially available, we predict that the service will prove popular, with around 10% of all Thai mobile users expected to be using 3G by the end of 2010. However, there are a number of determining factors, including the availability of affordable handsets and the quality of content offered. What is certain is that operators are eager to make 3G a success in order to boost revenues, which have taken a hit from the recent mobile price war.

3G MARKET MAINTAINS GROWTH IMPETUS
BMI Mobile Telephony Historical Data & Forecasts 2003-10
                                                          2003   2004   2005   2006f  2007f  2008f  2009f  2010f
No of Cellular Mobile Phone Subscribers ('000)            22,924 27,608 30,340 36,900 43,100 49,700 54,185 57,980
No of Mobile Phone Subscribers/100 Inhabitants            35.9   43.0   46.9   59.1   68.3   78.6   86.0   92.9
No of Mobile Phone Subscribers/100 Fixed Line Subscribers 363.5  427.0  459.7  538.7  611.3  686.5  723.4  772.4
No of 3G Subscribers ('000)                               0      0      0      0      900    2,100  4,100  5,535
3G Market as % of Entire Mobile Market (%)                0      0      0      0      2.1    4.2    7.6    9.5
Source: NTC, ITU, Operator results,f = BMI forecasts,

Source: Emerging Markets Daily News 

By now, millions of Chinese were supposed to be making calls using China's third-generation (3G) standard. Sales were supposed to be ramping up for wireless LANs using WAPI, another domestic standard, and millions were also supposed to be watching movies on EVDs-yep, another homegrown standard. None of this has come to pass. And it doesn't look like much of anything will happen anytime soon.

I've been writing a lot lately about Chinese technical standards, mostly on what hasn't happened. There are so many standards in the mix now that I may soon need a scorecard to keep track of who's doing what and why.

Although I generally agree that China's effort to develop standards and the related intellectual property (IP) is a good idea, I am starting to wonder if the shotgun approach is hitting a point of diminishing returns because of so many simultaneous efforts.

China is undertaking standards in at least 12 application areas: cell phones, Internet Protocol TV, optical disks, operating systems, wireless LANs, digital TV, mobile TV, digital rights management, memory cards, home networking and A/V compression. It is rumored to be developing a standard for WiMax/WiBro, too, and there are probably a few others out there that have yet to pop up on the radar.

At this point, none of the standards has proven a commercial success. China's mobile-phone specification is one of three approved by the International Telecommunication Union, but it's still in the development phase and is the main reason for the delay in the issuance of 3G licenses in China-the government won't roll out services unless it has a hometown favorite in the game.

Some in China see the standards work as the only way for the country to break a cycle of IP dependence on the West that crimps its already pinched margins. Others believe that in many cases it's a waste of resources, given that foreign companies are so dominant. The truth is somewhere in between.

China's approach to standards is a little like venture capital investing. Line up 10 candidates, invest in all of them and hope that a few pull through for big wins. One difference, though, is in the level of due diligence being done for some of the projects: A few of them just aren't remotely realistic.

Moreover, some of these standards are slowing down market developments. In particular, TD-SCDMA is a drag on the 3G cellular market in China, and mobile TV may be the same if China decides to wait on issuing spectrum licenses until its DMB-T/H technology is fully tested by vendors. Numerous delays in the digital terrestrial standard are already imperiling the government's plans to transition from digital to analog. And there will probably be further delays in the implementation side, as has been seen in other markets.

China should look at the bigger picture and focus on a few key areas where it can seriously make a difference in gaining some IP footholds. This will likely be in areas like cellular networks and digital TV terrestrial networks, where China can mandate adoption without running afoul of free-trade rules. When it comes to areas where the market decides, China still has a ways to go, as we are seeing from Chinese standards concerned with optical disks (EVD), wireless LANs (WAPI) and audio/video compression (AVS).

For instance, backers of AVS had hoped to start seeing some deployments in the market, with potential applications ranging from satellite and cable set-top boxes to mobile phones and high-definition optical-disk players. China Netcom and China Telecom are supposed to be testing AVS, but multiple sources reached at both companies either didn't know about the tests or didn't want to say how they are going.

In the meantime, MPEG-4/H.264 are moving ahead with real deployments in some of China's Internet Protocol TV rollouts. It's a frustrating story for some of China's standards drafters, but it will likely be one that continues for some time. That's the game.

I suspect that even though a focused effort might be better at this stage, the country's policy makers are thinking about casting a wider net. That would be unfortunate. What the country needs is quality, not quantity-a few well-placed efforts that can prove its worth as a standards player.

 

Source: Electronic Engineering Times

Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik wants Malaysia to have its own miracle broadband growth story, like that of South Korea. He wants to see the creation of a Malaysian version of South Korea's Hanaro Telecom Inc, a small player that has managed to challenge the incumbent in providing high-speed Internet access.

Here's why: High-speed Internet access has reached South Korean homes faster than anywhere else in the world, with 83% of households subscribing to broadband. From under 1% Internet penetration in 1995, it became the world's fifth largest Internet market with 26 million users by the end of 2002, according to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). This was despite the country not being demographically suited to have the highest broadband penetration in Asia as South Korea is a relatively big country with a large population, says the ITU report. Its per capita income was also a step below what one would call a rich country at that time.

The remarkable progress is, in part, due to the intense competition between Hanaro and incumbent telco KT Corp. Hanaro, now South Korea's number two broadband service provider, was set up in 1997 as part of then President Kim Dae-Jung's plan to revive the economy. Despite the onslaught of the Asian financial crisis at that time, the regulators decided to press ahead with the broadband initiative and ordered major office and apartment buildings to be connected with fibre-optic. Hanaro's success in rolling out broadband forced KT to be more aggressive.

The country's broadband focus helped raise contributions from the ICT industry to the country's GDP to 13% in 2000, up from 8.6% in 1997. Contributions from ICT accounted for half the country's GDP in 2000. The market for network equipment market quadrupled between 1995 and 2003.

Today, many homes enjoy broadband speeds sufficient to support high definition television. South Korea is now trying to build an ecosystem to further foster content development.

Hanarotelecom is also the first domestic fixed-line carrier to offer triple-play service, bundling broadband Internet, telephony and TV-portal service. It launched its "HanaTV" portal service on July 24 and expects to attract 1.5 million users by 2008. It also aims to provide full-fledged IPTV services by 2008.

Some 30% of high-speed Internet users are Hanarotelecom subscribers, despite KT Corp controlling some 93% of the fixed-line market.

 

Source: The Edge Financial Daily

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has ruled that fixed line incumbent Telstra must continue to limit the unbundled local loop (ULL) prices it charges competitors for using its PSTN, starting on 1 August, for a further three years. ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said that maintaining regulation of ULL services would promote competition, but added that pricing issues surrounding ULL remained contentious and the ACCC would therefore not be releasing pricing guidelines immediately. The ACCC said pricing caps will also be extended to line rental charges, prompting Telstra spokesperson Liz Jurman to claim ‘the regulator is stuck in a timewarp,’ according to the Financial Times. The decision has heightened tensions between the incumbent and regulator, which have been long involved in a bitter exchange over how Telstra will provide rivals with access to its planned AUD3.1 billion (USD2.4 billion) next generation network. Telstra releases its annual results on 10 August, after which the government will decide whether to sell its remaining 51.8% in the company. The question of network access will have a major bearing on Telstra’s future, including affecting its sale value. Source: Telegeography

Lawmakers in the Philippines are mulling proposals to bring in revised licence fees for the country’s existing 3G licensees. The House of Representatives' committee on Oversight and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are thought to be studying plans to introduce 'upfront and yearly broad spectrum fees' for Smart Communications, Globe Telecom, Digital Telecommunications (Digitel) and CURE (Connectivity Unlimited Resources Enterprise Inc), following a long-running dispute over the terms and conditions of the original licence awards. Source: Telegeography

[...] South Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication said it has ordered LG Telecom, the country's smallest mobile operator, to pay an additional 103.5 billion won (US$108.8 million) in 3G licence fees, according to Korean newspaper reports. The operator lost its licence to provide 3G services based on the cdma2000 standard in the 2-gigahertz spectrum band after it said it had decided not to use this spectrum. The company originally won one of three 3G licences issued under the IMT-2000 umbrella in 2001. Rival operators SK Telecom and FT Freetel were awarded their licences in 2000 for the alternative WCDMA 3G technology. LGT has already paid around 220 billion won for the licence, but had been widely expected to have to pay more. The loss of the licence also led to the departure of the operator's CEO Nam Yong, who has been replaced by Jung Il Jae. But in a statement on its Web site LG Telecom asserted that "the cancellation of the IMT-2000 business license does not mean that LG Telecom is abandoning next generation services, but rather that this is a conscious decision by LG Telecom to provide next-generation services more efficiently. LG Telecom will continue to do its utmost to provide better services." The operator confirmed that it will make use of its existing 1.8-GHz spectrum to "launch the commercial service of EV-DO Rev A by December 2006 starting with Seoul, and this will be extended to the national level by 2008". LGT commented that "an economy analysis" indicates that using the existing 1.8-GHz bandwidth "will be more economical than using the 2.1-GHz bandwidth by approximately 3.35 trillion won." "Considering the 1.15 trillion won licence fee for using the frequency, the economic benefit will amount to approximately 4.5 trillion won," LGT added. Based on this analysis, LG Telecom said it has decided to "utilise the current 1.8-GHz bandwidth by providing voice services through 4FA [frequency allocation] using cdma2000 1x technology and by developing EV-DO Rev A systems for the remaining 3FA in order to accommodate data services". The operator further commented that assuming the number of subscribers reaches 16 million in the long term, "this will allow LG Telecom to accommodate voice services as well as satisfy the demand for data services even if the use of data becomes 248 times greater than it is today".

Source: Anne Morris, Total Telecom.