Government aims for tighter control of Internet services
Asia Times reports that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India wants to implement stricter control over certain foreign Internet companies that serve Indian customers.
The agency wants providers of Voice over Internet phone services (VoIP) to register, pay a licensing fee, set up servers in India, and in other ways submit to the demands of the Indian government and its various agencies.
It is hard to believe that the proposed regulations will not have adverse impact on Indian consumers, in particular by driving up the cost of making VoIP calls to friends and family members overseas.
In other news, Business Standard reports on the telecom industry’s take on the legacy of former Communications Minister Dayanadhi Maran, who resigned yesterday.
Writes the Business Standard:
While GSM operators have supported Maran’s achievements, some CDMA operators say he failed to deliver. Meanwhile, the stock of Sun TV, owned by Maran’s brother Kalanidhi Maran, fell 4.3 per cent on the news of the resignation.
“He was the first minister who was not pro-CDMA. He set growth targets that looked ridiculous initially but he pushed us and achieved it,†said a member of the Cellular Operators’ Association of India, the body representing GSM operators.
“He was a GSM favourite, did everything to protect state owned telecom companies and instead of taking decisions on many crucial issues, he just leveraged those made by his predecessors,†said a member of the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India, which represents GSM players.
The rapid growth in the number of cell phone subscribers is overwhelming the assigned spectrum. With six million new cell phone subscribers every month, the government may need to cap the number of cellphone service providers to prevent signal quality and access from deteriorating further, according to Financial Express.