Telephone

BAR CODE
What's IMEI number?
Comprises 14 digits plus a check digit in the format AABBBBBB-CCCCCC-D. It gives a mobile its unique identity. Type *#06# to get it. If it has all zeroes or no zero, it is invalid

Your cell is barred if...
It shows no network signal or displays `Invalid SIM' or `SIM Registration Failed'. While dialling, cell shows `Call Failed' or doesn't connect. Your cell is on, but you can't be reached

If you bought a cheap Chinese mobile phone recently, the investment might turn out to be expensive. Calls from such phones may be barred since most don't carry the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, a unique 14-digit code used to identify valid devices. Even locally-assembled handsets that don't have IMEI numbers may be barred, according to a recent note by the department of telecom (DoT). There are about 1.6 crore Chinese-made and locally-assembled handsets in use that don't have IMEI numbers. Even mobile phones that have all zeroes or no zero in their IMEI code will also be barred.

The DoT move comes after security agencies found the mobile phones used by terrorists in the recent blasts did not have IMEI numbers. Sales of Chinese handsets constitute about 13.3% (or Rs 4,000 crore) of the Rs 30,000-crore annual mobile handset market in the country. About 16.8 lakh Chinese and locallyassembled handsets are sold every month.

However, the directive leaves a loophole as it does not take into account fake IMEI numbers with at least one zero. Local dealers of Chinese handsets are exploiting this by offering to change the IMEI number if your phone has a code with all zeroes or no zero. Mobile phone makers said they are working to plug the loophole as a change in IMEI is not legal in India, unlike the UK and Poland. Software to change IMEI numbers is freely available on websites like brothesoft.com. The government fears militants might use such software to switch the IMEI code of a mobile phone several times during a call, thus making the caller virtually untraceable.

About 1 crore users may be affected

Under the latest expansion plan, Calcutta Telephones is holding talks with the Kolkata Police to help the latter avail of its three-month promotional scheme of rent-free tracking-enabled mobile connections.

Through the location-based service, 10,000 rent-free tracking-enabled mobile connections will be given to the top police officers, enabling them to locate their subordinates on web or through SMS.

"This system, also known as the resource tracking management system, is for the police officers and transporters and will enable them to avail of facilities like monitoring and tracking the location of their vehicles and personnel. We have a map on the web through which the police officers will be able to locate where their officials are. The user can even send an SMS through his mobile and learn the same," said deputy general manager (mobile), Sabita Soy.

The service will be provided to Kolkata Police and SIM cards will be given under individual names.

This is, however, not quite an implementation of the carrier access code (CAC) project mooted several years ago. In the face of resistance by telcos to CAC and the department of telecom's (DoT) willingness to play along, Trai has come up with a variation.

This is how it will work. Suppose you are a Bharti subscriber. But you find that BSNL offers the cheapest long-distance tariffs. You can buy a pre-paid long-distance package from BSNL for so many seconds. You then punch in a set of numbers specified in the package to get onto the BSNL network and make your calls. You can talk for as long as your pre-paid package permits.

The regulator will also mandate that all telcos offer their customers the facility to purchase pre-paid long-distance packages or virtual calling cards on the internet. Globally, long-distance tariffs have fallen 20-53% after customers were allowed to choose their operator. Even players like Gail, RailTel and Power-Grid that have long-distance backbones can offer this facility, along with telcos that provide customer access.

Allowing ISPs to extend their internet telephony operations will effectively create an alternative domestic telephone network and has been criticised by mobile service providers as being unfair.

NET GAINS
(Key points of Trai's internet telephony recommendations)

•  Internet service providers will be allowed to provide unrestricted internet telephony within and outside the country and vice versa. They can now connect to landlines and mobile numbers within the country

•  ISPs will be allowed to have interconnection with national long-distance (NLD) operators through the internet for such services

• The annual gross revenue (AGR) of an NLD for calculating the licence fee to include revenue from carriage of internet telephony apart from normal revenue

•  Each service provider that intends to provide internet telephony service within India will install lawful interception equipment to comply with regulations set out by security agencies.

• Telecom Engineering Centre to conduct study on the basis of which appropriate number blocks will be earmarked for internet telephony under an eleven digit numbering plan

Experience in the EU, US, Korea, Singapore, among others, demonstrates what regulators and policymakers can do to expand broadband access. A critical lesson is that broadband growth has been driven by services of immediate interest to the people at large, not just the geeks.

Trai has played a stellar role in expanding mobile access. However, when it came to opening Internet telephony, consumers have been let down repeatedly. Across the world, businesses -- from small street-corner stores to major multinationals -- offer Internet telephony so that users can make cheap long-distance calls. Not in India.

In 2005, perverse rules for Internet telephony announced by former minister for communications Dayanidhi Maran allowed only telecom operators (telcos) to provide the service. Ordinary Internet service providers (ISPs) could become Internet telephony service providers (ITSPs) but could offer only a restricted service after a hefty payment. With  huge mark-ups on long-distance calls -- despite the recent cuts in long-distance rates -- it was evident telcos would have little incentive to provide Internet telephony. Predictably, telcos rarely offer Internet telephony and ITSPs have made little headway.

Internet telephony has been available internationally for more than a decade. Given the market failure, the regulator has an obligation to facilitate the service without further delay. In the past, it supported entry of CDMA fixed service players into mobile telephony on exactly these grounds. Internet telephony merits similar treatment.

The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) claim that they can offer free local calls in case of own network (that is, within the network of a particular internet service provider) and 10 paise per minute for calls on other IP network. "ISD call rates can further come down to 50 paise per minute on same IP network, and in other IP network 75 paise. And if you want to call on a mobile or fixed line from an IP phone, STD call rates can be offered at 50 paise per minute," the ISPAI claims. The association has members such as Sify, Net4, HFCL, HCL Infinet, RailTel, Spectranet and Tulip IT Services.

Currently, STD call rates on mobile networks are about Re 1 per minute while local rates range from 80 paise to Rs 1. Operators such as Airtel and Vodafone charge Re 1.50 and Re 2.75 per minute for a STD call whereas a call from India to the US or UK costs cheaper at 95 paise per minute, or lower through the internet protocol (IP) telephony. The same call to the US or UK through a mobile cost Rs 6.40.

Interestingly, many telecom operators currently route their domestic calls through the IP network. Says ISPAI president Rajesh Charria, "As admitted by

many operators, they are routing the call through the IP networks and still charging exorbitant call rates." Global giants such as Google, AT&T, Cisco, Microsoft and Nortel are backing the ISPs in their demand for allowing unrestricted IP telephony.

It's interesting to note that IP telephony in most developed markets such as the US, Singapore is unregulated, resulting in drastic fall in call rates. For instance, a $2.5 (Rs 100) calling card offers a 30 minute call to India from US which comes to a per minute rate of Rs 3.33 for an ISD call from US to India. Whereas in India, the mobile operators offer the same call at double the price for a call to the US. Some others offer India calling at 4.2 cents per minute or Rs 1.60 per minute, almost one-sixth the ISD rate offered by operators in India.

IPTV was a part of BSNL's ambitious triple play offer, which was supposed to provide internet, television and land line telephone through a single cable line, but the project failed since all the existing cables were found incompatible to transmit data at high speed. Most of the existing cables of Calcutta Telephones are capable of transferring data at the rate of two megabits per second. But to enable all three services simultaneously, the cable needed to transfer six megabits of data per second.

Meanwhile, BSNL has collaborated with India Online Network, a Mumbai-based company for providing the television network. An official of ION said that about 3,500 applicants have not got the IPTV connection and despite cable incompatibility, Calcutta Telephones continues to accept applications for IPTV at its various exchanges.

The vice-president, access, ION, said: "The delay is primarily due to the worn-out technical support system of Calcutta Telephones. The upgradation work is complete and new applicants would be getting the connection within four days. The applicants who had applied for the connection before would get it soon."

Mr SK Chakraborty, Central General Manager of Calcutta Telephones said the upgradation work is already complete and subscribers have been getting easy access to IPTV.

Additionally the PSU also reduced its tariff for Sancharnet dial-up internet cards by almost 50 percent for the handicapped and senior citizens. The Corporate sancharnet card worth around Rs 5056 was reduced to Rs 2528, while the Regular and Temporary sancharnet card account cost were slashed to Rs 140 and Rs 84 respectively.

BSNL launched free broadband connections for all welfare organisations in Kolkata looking after the disabled and handicapped, waiving monthly fixed charge for broadband service and modem for such organizations.

Currently, all telcos pay 0.75% of their total revenues towards ADC, which is used to support state-owned BSNL's unviable fixedline operations in rural India. The phasing out of this levy will enable the industry to save about Rs 700 crore per annum.

Within hours of the Trai announcement, all telecom companies said that they would pass on the savings to their subscribers.

The regulator said on Monday that for the first unsolicited communication, a service provider would have to pay a penalty of up to Rs 5,000, which could go up to Rs 20,000 for each subsequent communication. A telemarketer would have to pay a penalty of Rs 500 for the first unsolicited communication, and Rs 1,000 for every subsequent communication. The Times of India had reported on January 17 that Trai was planning such a strict regulation.

Disturb & Pay Up

• Subscriber must make complaint within 15 days of pesky call
  
• Penalty up to Rs 5,000 for first call. Can go up to Rs 20,000 for subsequent calls
  
• Rs 500 fine on telemarketers for first call, Rs 1,000 for further calls
  
• Service providers ask: Why is Trai punishing intermediaries?

BSNL has lodged a complaint with police. "It is a recurrent problem. Not only are our subscribers harassed, but we also have a harrowing time restoring the lines as hackers destroy the distribution and exchange tags without which restoration becomes an uphill task," said divisional engineer Sitanshu Sarkar.

A BSNL official said two mini pillar junction boxes at Sitanshu Mukherjee Road under Tollygunge police station were found partially damaged on Thursday. But when a BSNL team reached the spot the next day, it found that all cables had been cut off, in all probability, with power saws. Also, connection between the distribution lines and the exchange was completely snapped, resulting in a network collapse in large parts of south Kolkata, the official added.

BSNL officials also found underground cables damaged on SP Mukherjee Road on Thursday.

"We suspect that one of our rival private players might be involved in the sabotage. The day before, one of them had distributed leaflets among the affected subscribers," said Sarkar.

Tapan Dutta of Nakuleswar Bhattacharjee Lane, one of the affected subscribers, said: "A youth handed me a leaflet and told me to contact him if I wanted to change my telephone service provider."

"Distribution of leaflets among affected subscribers and hacked cables are more than a coincidence," said Sarkar.

BSNL officials are certain that thieves do not have a hand behind this as damaged cables have a negligible resale value. Moreover, power saws were used, something that thieves do not use. A senior police officer said a probe was on.

For set-top boxes, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) will look into specifications for IPTV to help cable operators design IPTV networks, said a TRAI official.

This will give a boost to the two PSUs, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), which own close to 90 per cent of the country's total fixed telephone lines.

IPTV permits a telecom service provider to offer TV through telephone lines. A special modem is required at the customer's premises for transmitting TV signals. It uses Internet Protocol (IP) and is, thus, called IPTV. Aksh, Exicom and IOL are some of the leading IPTV service providers that have joined hands with BSNL and MTNL for IPTV services.

They are working on a franchise basis with the two PSUs.

Under this scheme, BSNL gets 10 per cent of revenue earned by the franchisee.

Now, with the government settling the regulatory issue, the two PSUs will be bullish on IPTV. Telecom operators with unified access service li cences and cellular mobile telephony service licences to provide triple-play services, as well as Internet service providers with a net worth of more than Rs 100 crore with permission from the licensor to provide IPTV, can provide the services.

Bharti Airtel started IPTV trials a year ago in 1,000 households in Gurgaon and is slated to launch its services in the first half of the next fiscal. RComm, too, plans to launch the service in 10 cities around the same time. State owned BSNL recently launched multi-play ser vices for broadband cus tomers in Pune. VSNL, too, is expected to launch IPTV ser vices soon.

India has one of the lowest average revenue per user (ARPU) in the world, both in mo bile and fixed line services. Fixed line service providers are looking at IPTV ser vices as a saviour for them. They believe that IPTV services will be able to increase their revenues.

However, the cable industry views IPTV services by telecom operators as an encroachment on their area of operations and a threat to their business model. The advantage of IPTV over cable TV is that it is a two-way medium and, therefore, more interactive in nature.

Since telecom service providers with UASL licences are permitted to provide tripleplay services, questions have repeatedly been raised on whether these operators need further regulatory clearances.

A senior official in the telecom department said that Union communication minister A Raja is leading the push for a cost-based pricing formula along the lines of what is being adopted in sectors like power.

Sources said Raja has asked his department to approach the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on the issue of slashing telecom tariffs.

While India has among the lowest telecom tariffs in the world, the minister sees scope for further reduction since in purchasing power parity terms (a method for determining how much a dollar can buy across countries), the rates here don't compare favourably with those abroad.

Besides, Indian subscribers pay roaming rates that are among the most exorbitant in the world.

Regulators have had little success in reining in global roaming tariffs, but this does not seem to have deterred the ministry from taking a fresh stab at it.

The state-run telecom operator MTNL is confident that it will generate additional opportunity for MTNL as it is expected that some of the high-end customers will be facilitated to migrate to MTNL.

MTNL had entered GSM space almost six years later than the competitors due to various reasons which included the court case filed by the competitors to prevent MTNL's entry into mobile services.

The Indian government has said it planned to allow mobile phone subscribers to keep the same number when they changed networks in the four cities of Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai, by the fourth quarter of 2008.

Over two months have gone by and 6.7 million phone users have made it plain they DO NOT want to receive pesky tele-marketing calls by registering on NDNC. But to no avail. They continue to get these calls every day, at inconvenient times, creating a sense of despair with the regulator and telecom companies.

Readers have often written in to TOI complaining about the `menace'. Some have upbraided us for not being able to sort out this ``simple problem''. We decided to check out the magnitude of the problem by conducting a survey in four metros -- Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata. We also asked the regulator -- Trai -- and some of the telecom companies as to what was the problem in blocking unsolicited calls.

First the poll. The unambiguous message from the exclusive poll done by Synovate India for TOI was that the NDNC is a miserable failure. According to the poll, every single person who registered on it in Delhi more than 45 days ago -- the period beyond which the calls were supposed to stop has continued to get such calls, some of them as many as 20 a week.

The situation is better in Kolkata, where only 50% of those who registered on NDNC said the pesky calls are continuing. It is only in Mumbai that a majority of this category -- about two-thirds -- said they've stopped getting the unwanted calls.

Among those who haven't registered, everyone said they faced this nuisance. Every respondent in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata said he or she received unsolicited calls. It was only in Bangalore that 40% said they had not been harassed in this manner. The poll suggests the problem is most acute in Delhi, with about onethird saying they receive more than 10 such calls a week on average. Mumbaikars were the next most pestered lot followed by Kolkata.