On 22 October, the government has set free a set of spectrum in the 5 Ghz band from licensing for providing Wifi and partially 5G services by telecom companies. Now no permits would be required for the spectrum in the range of 5150-5250 megahertz band, 5250-5350 Mhz and 5725-5875 Mhz, according to an official notification. 

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The news in media that 50 crore mobile connections will be discontinued is in fact a rumour. The government on 18 October rubbished the claims.

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Riding on the strong user additions and increased data usage, Reliance Jioposted a net profit of Rs 681 crore for the fiscal second quarter, compared with Rs 612 crore crore in the April-June period. Its subscriber base reached 252.3 million as of September 30, 2018. It claimed to have the lowest churn in the industry at 0.66% per month. However, its ARPU declined to Rs 131.7 per subscriber per month.

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The telecom regulator TRAI’s DND app will now be available on Apple phones. Apple said that it is mindful of the concerns of the regulator in blocking spam, and the latest operating system provides ways to report them.Apple’s new operating system iOS12 offers enabling provisions that allow third-party do-not-disturb (DND) apps to work on its handsets.

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The telecom operators must inform its customers 30 days in advance before closing their services. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had to take this step as some telcos closed the services of many subscribers following the Supreme Court order on Aadhaar.

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The low frequency range like bluetooth, wireless chargers, internet-of-things products, medical devices etc have been kept out of licensing requirement, as the government wants to promote ease of doing business for adoption of new technologies like internet of things, machine-to-machine communications.

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To include the regulatory framework for application of net neutrality principles, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has amended the Unified Licence (UL) norms for telecom operators and virtual network operators (VNOs).

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PM Modi has asked the department of telecommunications (DoT) to consider steps to jam signals from neighbouring countries as also to provide signals of Indian service providers going across the borders.

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As Sundararajan, the DoT secretary, has gone on 15-day leave, Ajay Prakash Sawhney, the secretary at the ministry of information and technology (MeitY), has been given additional charge for the Department of Telecommunications from September 29 till October 14.

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A the government is examining the feasibility of allocating this spectrum band in India for 5G, close on the heels of South Korea auctioning these airwaves, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is preparing to seek suggestions from the telecom regulator TRAI on the suitability of the 28 GHz band for 5G commercial deployments, along with its views on pricing such airwaves.

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The artificial intelligence (AI) major AuthMe ID Services has been acquired by the country’s leading telecom services provider Bharti Airtel. The Bengaluru based start-up creates Artificial Intelligence based solutions.

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The telecom operators have received a circular from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on 1 October where they were asked to submit plans by October 15 to close down their Aadhaar-based authentication systems in line with last week’s Supreme Court order, and added that any non-compliance of the ruling may lead to contempt of court proceedings.

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On 26 September, the Telecom Commission got Cabinet’s nod. The National Digital Communications Policy 2018 aims to create four million jobs, draw $100 billion of investments into the telecom industry by 2022, and boost sectoral contribution to 8% of GDP from 6% in 2017, besides backing the principles of net neutrality.

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While Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently faced call drops while returning from airport to his residence & asked the telecom ministry to use technologies to end this issue which makes every user cry, the Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha blamed people who obstruct installation of mobile towers due to fear of ill-effect of radiation for call drops.

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The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has extended mandatory testing of mobile devices, telecom gear to April 2019. The government plans to increase the number of TEC-designated laboratories in the country fourfold to 100, from 25 at present, to facilitate implementation of essential testing norms.

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Japan’s Softbank and NTT Communications will help the state-owned telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) in launching its 5G and Internet of things (IoT) products and services.

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According to the telecom minister Manoj Sinha, the FDI in telecom sector has reached $6.2 billion in 2017-18. He added that India needs massive investments in developing newer technologies which could be accessible and affordable to the people, and at the same time, create productive employment.

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The telecom operators will be audited by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) from FY2012 onwards. This will be 'special audits' to check for under-reporting of revenue that might account for a sharp downturn in license fees and spectrum usage charges (SUC). Annual license fees and SUC paid to the government are calculated based on a telco’s revenue.

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According to 5G Americas & Ovum data, 4G LTE will touch 5.6 billion connections while 5G will reach 400 million connections globally by 2022. The report tells that LTE market share will stand at 60 per cent. 

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Disturbed by the US and Australia’s ban of its firms Huawei and ZTE, China has asked India to give a 'level playing field' for its firms in 5G trials.

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