The central government Thursday moved the Supreme Court requesting time till March 2013 for auctioning the 2G licences and allocation of spectrum, cancelled by the apex court by its Feb 2 order. The application for clarificatory orders/direction has sought the court’s nod for conducting the auction of the cancelled 2G licences broadly in accordance with the roadmap set forth by it.Seeking more time for the auction of the cancelled 2G licences and the spectrum allocation, the government application point...

India has the world’s youngest internet population with 75 percent of all users under the age of 35 years, said research firm comScore Friday.The findings were announced by comScore’s co-founder and executive chairman Gian M. Fulgoni at the second edition of digital marketing event ‘ad:tech’ being organised here.In comparison to India, the world’s average of under 35-year users stood at 52 percent and 55 percent in Asia Pacific region.“Further, a third of India’s tota...

India’s GSM subscriber base grew by 1.32 percent in January with addition of 8.44 million mobile phone users, of whom Uninor alone signed up over 2.5 million customers, according to the data released by Cellular Operators Association of India.The total number of GSM subscribers in the country crossed 648 million as against 639.6 million in December.Uninor, whose all 22 licences stand cancelled following the Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this month, now has a market share of 6.86 percent with 38.8...

The Delhi High Court Thursday dismiised a plea seeking a stay on a tribunal order that restrained by the Department of Telecom (DoT) from imposing a ban on 3G roaming pacts between mobile operator.The DoT had pleaded that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to look into the licence terms and conditions entered among the operators and the DoT.But the court said the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) had the jurisdiction to hear the case of mobile phone service providers that have challenged...

After RIM’s messaging services, Nokia’s push mail services and asking Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and Skype among others to route their services through servers in the country, Indian intelligence agency – the Intelligence Bureau – now wants to track mobile Internet usage. Their case in point in logical – if they can trace users via IP addresses from Internet Service Providers, they should be able to do the same with mobile operators too. The Economic Times reports that the Departm...

Etisalat, the 45 percent stakeholder in Swan Telecom that operates in 14 circles under the Cheers brand, has decided to shut its Indian operations after the Supreme Court cancelled 122 2G licenses that included all of its 15 permits. The carrier will give its existing 1.6 million subscribers to move to other networks and will lay off all of its employees in India, NDTV reports. Etisalat will also seek refund from the Department of Telecommunications as it had bought its 45 percent stake from DB Reality, the p...

India’s computers market declined 6.5 percent at 2.5 million units for the quarter ended Dec 31 against the like period of the previous financial year, a study by IT research and advisory firm Gartner said Wednesday.The devices included desk-based as well as mobile personal computers (laptops).“The hard-disk drive (HDD) shortage due to the floods in Thailand significantly impacted the desktop market which declined 18 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2011,” said Vishal Tripathi, ...

India Wednesday announced new norms for the telecom industry, making mergers and acquisitions (M&As) easier in the sector that is set to enter a phase of consolidation after the recent Supreme Court order revoked 122 2G licences.“Merger up to 35 percent market share of the resultant entity will be allowed through a simple, quick procedure,” Communications Minister Kapil Sibal said, reading out the changes in policies governing licences, spectrum and merger norms.Sibal said that all players wou...

Yesterday when Google released a version of its Chrome web browser for Android one of the notable omissions from the browser was Adobe Flash support. Adobe has reiterated this fact that it is not going to release a version of Flash for Chrome on Android, and will instead work with Google on advancing HTML5 and CSS technologies for mobile devices. (more…)Google+

Telecom major Bharti Airtel Wednesday reported a 22.4 percent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs.1,011.3 crore for the quarter ended December 31 owing to high interest costs and higher tax provisions. The net profit during the like period of the previous financial year was Rs.1,303.3 crore. Total income stood at Rs.18,507.8 crore during the quarter under review, up 17.27 percent as compared to Rs.15,781.8 crore during the year ago period, the operator said in a statement.Reacting to the news, the compan...

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Monday sought the industry’s view on whether there should be a cap on the tariffs of telecom services in the wake of many operators hiking their tariffs in the recent months. Under the present regulatory framework, service providers have the flexibility to determine tariff for the services depending upon the market situation.“After entry of new operators in the year 2008, the market witnessed competition in the form of reduced tariff, including intr...

The website of a petitioner and Islamic scholar who dragged Facebook, Google, Yahoo and others to court over allegedly objectionable content has been defaced and left with a message “Probably best not to piss the social networking sites off!”Petitioner Mufti Aijaz Arshad Qasmi told IANS that his website www.fatwaonline.in has been defaced for the past one week. He now plans to file a police complaint. The message dated ’2012-01-03′ was posted on the news and updates column of the websi...