Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) has requested the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to cancel the mobile tender for the North-East awarded to Bharti Airtel, claiming that the project limits the scope of deployment to only 2G services.

The Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA), with ATC Telecom Infra, ATC India Tower & ATC Telecom Tower, Indus Towers, GTL Infrastructures, Tower Vision India, Bharti Infratel and Reliance Infratel, in its annual general meeting (AGM) 2017 emphasised the need of a robust telecom infrastructure to realise the Digital India mission as telecom infrastructure will enable various futuristic technologies such as 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), machine to machine (M2M), artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) etc. 

In a bid to evaluate industry interest in another round of spectrum auction, TRAI has floated a consultation paper on the sale of spectrum in nine bands (including the coveted 700 MHz band). The paper seeks views on timeline of auctions as well as the price and quantum of spectrum to be sold. However, given operators' high debt levels and deteriorating financial position, they may not be looking for an auction in the near term. tele.net spoke to industry experts from Deloitte, Ovum, COAI etc., for their views on operators’ readiness for a spectrum auction, the pricing and quantum of airwaves to be put on sale, and the feasibility of auctioning 5G spectrum...

Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) has denied any benefits from the reduction in interconnection usage charges (IUC) from 14 paise to 6 paise by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The announcement comes after incumbents and several analysts have alleged that the TRAI move is likely to benefit RJIL significantly.