Telecom Roundup: 11.75 million Connections Added, 3G Auction by Year end..and more

11.75 million subscribers were added in the month of April (drop of 26% as compared to March) taking the total number of wireless subscribers to 403.66 million (overall tele-density reached 37.94 from 36.98).

Tata Tele to enter GSM Space

Given the absence of CDMA spectrum roadmap, Tata Tele has decided to move to GSM. The GSM operations will start in few weeks. – more

Mobile Tariff should fall

Communications Minister, A Raja says that that he soon expects local mobile call prices to tumble to 10 paisa a minute (the current average tariff is 60 paisa) and national long distance call prices to 25 paisa a minute (from Re 1 now). – more

3G Auction by Year End

The proposal for auction may be cleared by Cabinet (and not GoM). The Department of Telecom (DoT) has told the Cabinet Secretariat that since the auctions were a priority of the new government, the approval of the Union Cabinet be sought directly on this issue. The Cabinet can consider the earlier submission the communications ministry had made when re-examining the proposal for 3G auctions, DoT added.-  more