Telecom Regulatory Authority News

Under NTO 3.0, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) allowed broadcasters to raise bouquet channel prices to 19 from 12. The price changed on February 1. Most broadcasters have raised Bouquet And Popular Channel Prices By 10-15%, claiming it's the bare minimum after four years of no price increases. Direct-to-home players, who don't have local cable operators, have agreed to pass on a 5-9% increase to subscribers and take a hit on other costs. As cable operators refuse to raise channel prices, Disney Star, Zee Entertainment Enterprises, and Sony Pictures Networks India have cut signals to them. Let's watch this video to examine both sides of their story.

Consumers can pay for only the channels they wish to watch at MRP instead of the pre-determined bouquets offered by broadcasters earlierThe NTO was expected to make channels cheaper but on groundthe opposite happened and the price of like-to-like options went up

Total internet subscribers increased to 0.72 billion in the December quarterTotal wireless subscriber base declined to 1.15 billion in Oct-Dec from 1.17 bn in the last quarter

Mobile tariffs are now under forbearance, which means operators have a free hand in fixing ratesIf a floor price is set, free services could be passé

The telecom industry will have six months to implement the changes after which the new regulation will come into force

Trai proposed fixing the base price for the 700MHz band at 6,568 crore per MHz43% less than 11,485 crore set in the 2016-17 auction

Firms to pay one-time fee from final DoT approval date for remaining licence period

DoT is unlikely to auction spectrum in the E and V bands, and is instead likely to accept the Trai's recommendations for light-touch regulation to allocate these airwaves

As if the tariff war and the resulting cash burn weren't bad enough, investors in Indian telcos are having to contend with one regulatory blow after another

COAI responds to Reliance Jio, says its 'differences' are with Trai's orders, not with a specific operator