The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has clarified regulations regarding inactive SIM cards, particularly addressing concerns of dual SIM users who maintain secondary SIMs for emergency purposes. These guidelines have become especially relevant following last July’s increase in recharge plan prices.

According to TRAI’s consumer handbook, a SIM card faces deactivation if it remains unused for more than 90 days. However, if the SIM has remaining prepaid balance, Rs 20 will be automatically deducted to extend its activation for an additional 30 days. In cases where the balance is insufficient, the SIM will be deactivated, preventing all communication services, and the number will eventually be recycled for new users.

Users need not worry immediately after the 90-day inactive period, as TRAI provides a 15-day grace period for reactivation. During this time, customers can reactivate their SIM by contacting customer care or visiting a company store. The regulatory body defines “non-usage” as the absence of any activity, including incoming or outgoing calls, messages, data sessions, or interactions with value-added services and payments.

In a related development, a new Intra Circle Roaming (ICR) facility was launched on January 17, enabling Jio, BSNL, and Airtel users to make calls using any available network when their primary network loses signal. This service operates through 4G mobile towers funded by the Digital Bharat Nidhi (DBN), allowing customers from any network to access 4G services through DBN-supported towers.

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Scams! Yes, they are increasing day by day and giving all of us a hard time. Whether you are from any part of the world, you may have heard or even witnessed scam calls. However, recently scams have been rampant in India, where people have been getting digitally arrested by scammers who then drain them of their savings. And sometimes they call you and say they are from your bank.

There have been several steps taken even by TRAI in India to stop these scams. But now even the Reserve Bank of India has come forward with a new direction for Indian banks to start using the 1600 number series for calling customers and the 140 series for marketing calls and SMS. This means that if your bank will try to reach you, the number should begin with 1600 or 140. And not just banks, but all regulated entities, NBFCs, and payment aggregators will also be under this new direction.

Additionally, they will need to register their customer service numbers on DoT’s Sanchar Saathi portal, making it easier for customers to verify legitimate business numbers. Second, they must join TRAI’s Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform, where they can only use approved templates for SMS and calls. Furthermore, banks and other financial institutions must get clear digital consent from customers before sending any promotional messages. These measures are designed to eliminate unauthorized telemarketers and create a system where all commercial communications can be traced.

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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or TRAI as commonly called, has released a new telecom subscription data as per on 31st of October 2024. The report paves way into the additions and declines of subscriber base in various segments, as well as the top gainers and losers of the respective segments.

Read more about it below.

Telecom Subscription Data – Key Gainers and Losers in Terms of Customer Base

As per the data released by TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India), notably as of on the 31st of October 2024, the total broadband subscribers and total telephone subscribers amounts to 941.47 million and 1188.20 million respectively. Speaking more, 13.45 million subscribers submitted requests for MNP (Mobile Number Portability), bringing the cumulative MNP requests from 1039.11 million as on September 2024, to 1052.56 million as on 31st October 2024. To add, the number of active wireless subscribers in October 2024 is also reportedly 1066.67 million.

So who all are the key gainers and losers in terms of customer base?

Broadband Subscribers

Based on the data from 1175 operators in October 2024, the total broadband subscribers at the end of October 2024 is 941.47 million. This is a 0.31% monthly decline from the 944.40 million subscribers at the end of September 2024.

The top five wired service providers are Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. (14.79 million), Bharti Airtel Ltd. (8.91 million), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (4.22 million), Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd. (2.27 million), and Kerala Vision Broadband Ltd. (1.24 million).

In the wireless broadband service providers list, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. (460.02 million), Bharti Airtel Ltd. (278.76 million), Vodafone Idea Ltd. (125.43 million), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (32.15 million), and Intech Online Pvt. Ltd. (0.25 million) are on the top five list.

In total, wired + wireless, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. (474.81 million), Bharti Airtel Ltd. (287.67 million), Vodafone Idea Ltd. (125.43 million), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (36.38 million), and Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd. (2.27 million) have acquired top five positions.

Wireline Subscribers

From 36.93 million of September 2024, at the end of October 2024, wireline subscribers have increased to 37.79 million. This is a 2.31% monthly growth rate with 0.85 million added user base.

Based on the data of access service provider-wise net addition or decline in wireline subscribers during the month of October 2024, Reliance Jio received 6,85,337 more subscribers, Bharti Airtel received 2,20,002 more subscribers, Tata Tele. received 10,415 more subscribers, VMIPL received 1,001 more subscribers, Quadrant received 247 more subscribers, Reliance Com. lost 513 subscribers, APSFL lost 1,398 subscribers, MTNL lost 8,792 subscribers, Vodafone Idea lost 16,675 subscribers, and BSNL lost 35,953 subscribers.

Wireless Subscribers

The total number of wireless subscribers decreased monthly by 0.29%, from 1,153.72 million of September 2024 to 1,150.42 million at the end of October 2024.

About the net addition in wireless subscribers of access service providers in October 2024, Bharti Airtel received 19,28,263 more subscribers (0.50% growth), BSNL received 5,03,371 more subscribers (0.55% growth), MTNL lost 2,273 subscribers (0.12% loss), Vodafone Idea lost 19,77,162 subscribers (0.93% loss), and Reliance Jio lost 37,60,863 subscribers (0.81% loss).

M2M Cellular Mobile Connections

The M2M cellular mobile connections increased from 54.64 million of September 2024 to 56.12 million at the end of October 2024.

Bharti Airtel Ltd. reportedly has the highest number of M2M cellular mobile connections of 29.08 million (51.82% market), followed by Vodafone Idea Ltd. (26.75% market share), Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. (15.95% market share), and BSNL (5.48% market share).

Total Telephone Subscribers

The total number of telephone subscribers decreased from 1,190.66 million of September 2024 to 1,188.20 million at the end of October 2024, marking a 0.21% monthly decline.

Active Wireless Subscribers (VLR Data)

Of the 1,150.42 million wireless subscribers, it has been noted that 1066.77 million wireless subscribers were active on the date of peak VLR in October 2024 (92.73% in proportion). Bharti Airtel Ltd. has the highest proportion (99.48%) and MTNL the lowest (26.84%).

Here’s more detailed reports:

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TRAI has unveiled its upgraded website with improved features to reach a broader audience. The new platform offers comprehensive information on telecom and broadcasting regulations, alongside easier access to policies, laws, and industry statistics.

Key additions include a new dashboard for the telecom and broadcasting sector, enhanced data sharing capabilities, and integration with major social media platforms. Users can now view data in an interactive grid format and download information for research purposes.

The website introduces ‘TARA’ (Telecom Authority Responsive Advisor), an AI chatbot for interactive searches. Other features include online registration for updates, event notifications, and participation in Open House Discussions.

Here is what is new:

• A new dashboard for telecom and broadcasting data
• Research data download option
• Interactive grid view for better data display
• Social media sharing (Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Facebook, X)
• Easy registration for TRAI updates
• Brief authority profile
• iOS and Android compatibility
• Blog with user comments
• Event information publishing
• Open House Discussion registration
• Accessibility features
• Tenders and notices section
• All regulations in one place with footnoted changes

The site is compatible with iOS, Android, and various platforms and offers a blog section where registered users can comment. All regulations are now compiled in one place, with amendments in footnotes.

The new website will be hosted on NIC Cloud. And the old website (https://oldwebsite.trai.gov.in/) will remain active for three months alongside the new one(https://www.trai.gov.in/).

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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released its latest telecom subscription data, revealing a decline in total telephone subscribers during September 2024. The total subscriber base decreased to 1,190.66 million, down from 1,200.07 million in August 2024, marking a monthly decline rate of 0.78%. Within these figures, the total number of wireless subscribers decreased to 1,153.72 million, while wireline subscribers increased, reaching 36.93 million. The number of active wireless subscribers stood at 1,059.97 million during the period.

The urban-rural distribution showed significant changes, with urban telephone subscription decreasing to 662.15 million and rural subscription dropping to 528.51 million. The overall teledensity in India decreased from 85.43% to 84.69%, with urban teledensity at 131.86% and rural teledensity at 58.48%. This decline was reflected across most service areas, with only Odisha showing growth in wireless subscribers during September.

Five major service providers dominated the market in the broadband sector with a 98.42% share. Reliance Jio led with 477.94 million subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel with 285.17 million, Vodafone Idea with 126.36 million, BSNL with 37.73 million, and Atria Convergence with 2.27 million subscribers. Regional variations remained significant, with Delhi maintaining the highest teledensity at 278.55%, while Bihar recorded the lowest at 56.40%.

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) showed continued activity, with the cumulative requests increasing from 1,025.78 million to 1,039.11 million by September end. The month saw 13.32 million new MNP requests, with Zone-I (Northern and Western India) receiving 7.48 million requests and Zone-II (Southern and Eastern India) receiving 5.84 million requests.

The Machine-to-Machine (M2M) sector also showed growth, with cellular connections increasing to 54.64 million. Bharti Airtel dominated this segment with 28.44 million connections, representing a 52.06% market share, followed by Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio, and BSNL. These figures demonstrate the evolving landscape of India’s telecom sector, with varying growth patterns across different service categories and regions.

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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has directed all telecom operators to publish detailed geospatial coverage maps of their 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G services, aiming to help consumers make informed decisions about their mobile service providers.

Under the new directive, telecom operators must display comprehensive coverage maps on their websites and mobile applications, showing exact areas where their various wireless voice and broadband services are available. The maps will use specific color schemes to indicate signal strength across different technologies.

TRAI’s guidelines specify that these coverage maps must be easily accessible, requiring operators to place direct links on their website homepages for one-click access. The maps will need to be based on either real data or approved coverage prediction methods to ensure accuracy.

The regulatory body has established specific standards for these coverage maps, including minimum signal strength requirements that must be used to determine the boundaries of network coverage areas. This standardization aims to provide accurate representations of service availability across different regions.

This initiative addresses a significant consumer challenge in India, where subscribers currently have no reliable way to determine which services are available in their area before choosing a provider. While major telecom operators offer multiple technology generations from 2G to 5G, service availability varies significantly by location.

The new requirement falls under TRAI’s quality of service (QoS) regulations. In its directive, TRAI emphasized that service quality expectations should align with actual coverage availability, noting that consumers cannot reasonably expect good service in areas lacking coverage. By making coverage information publicly accessible, TRAI aims to help users set realistic expectations and make better-informed choices about their mobile service providers.

The coverage maps will be available for both Android and iPhone users through their respective mobile applications, in addition to the website access.

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Back in March this year, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) announced a new rule for SIM porting as per which if a user gets a new SIM card because their old one is lost, damaged, or stolen, they can’t switch to a new telecom operator for seven days.

Well starting today, that is 1^st July 2024, this new SIM porting rule comes into effect. This new rule was introduced to prevent fraudulent SIM replacements in India as there have been instances of misuse of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) and SIM replacement leading to increased fraud risks.

This new rule comes into effect today following the ninth amendment of the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) regulations, introduced in 2009. As per the regulations, telecom providers will now be prohibited from issuing a unique porting code (UPC) to users in the initial seven days following the replacement or swap of the SIM. For this, a new criteria for rejection of UPC issuance has been introduced. To issue a UNP, mobile service providers must check for the following conditions-

• The mobile number has been ported earlier, If so, a period of 90 days has not elapsed since the last date of porting.
• Another porting request from the same mobile number is in process.
• A Unique Porting Code (UPC) has already been issued to the mobile number and hasn’t expired

As per TRAI, if any of the aforementioned conditions are valid, the network provider will be forbidden from generating a UPC and will have to inform the subscriber of the reason via an SMS.

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If you are tired of spam calls and messages here comes the end to it. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has introduced fresh regulations for Indian telecom companies starting from May 1, 2023. These regulations have been framed in order to protect Indian users from fraud and harassment in the telecom sector caused by these unwanted spam calls and messages.

This newly introduced step requires Indian telecom companies to incorporate AI spam filters in their call and message service. This AI will be programmed in such a way that it automatically detects and filters out promotional calls and messages from various sources. These calls and messages are used by scammers in order to cheat customers. This is not only a major step that has been taken to safeguard the telecom service in India but TRAI is also working on implementing a Call ID feature. This feature will display the photo and name of the caller on the receiver’s end.

If we talk about the steps that have been taken by some of the telecom companies, Airtel has already developed its AI Filter in collaboration with NVIDIA whereas Jio is still working towards its development. It will soon be rolled out for the users by companies and will relieve users who are annoyed by spam calls and messages.

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The TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) orders telecoms ( BSNL, Jio, Vi, and Airtel) to improve the quality of services as soon as possible.

In the midst of rising situations of service quality issues and customers complaints regarding the issue, the TRAI has ordered the major telecom companies to report dropped-call rates and outage data to the state level and also to take immediate actions to “demonstrate visible improvement” in quality of service and connectivity experience for consumers across the country.

Moreover, on the looming problem of unnecessary promotional calls and messages, the TRAI will ask the companies to implement a proper Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning tool to effectively detect and block spam that is encouraged by unregistered telemarketers through telephone numbers.

This new tool which is being tested by Vodafone Idea is expected to be implemented in around two months by the industry in order to reduce the menace of unsolicited promotional messages, as stated by TRAI Chairman PD Vaghela.

The TRAI officials also met telecom companies including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea on Friday to review the service quality issues, and standards for 5G services as well as on unsolicited commercial communications. It was made clear to the companies that quality should be the topmost priority and that TRAI will initiate a consultation process.

The companies are also informed to ensure that there is the least disturbance or degradation of service quality of existing telecom services while rolling out the 5G network. To make sure protocols are followed, the entire situation is being closely monitored by the TRAI itself.

This has been good news for all customers who have been exasperated time and again by call drops and patchy networks.

The post TRAI’s directive to telecoms to improve service quality immediately appeared first on The Tech Outlook.

With every passing day broadband subscribers are increasing in India and according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data for November 2022 there were a total of 825.4 million broadband subscribers in India. Out of the total subscribers, 793.5 users were wireless subscribers, and 825.4 were broadband subscribers.

Now the TRAI has brought good news for the broadband subscribers in India who will soon be getting higher speed internet than previous. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recently suggested the government revise the minimum broadband speed from 512kbps to 2Mbps. This means that broadband service providers will have to ensure that subscribers get the minimum speed of 2Mbps.

On the path of creating a larger digital economy, this is a major step by the Indian Government to give a boost to it. And this year is itself going to be an important year for the government as India is holding the G20 Summit in various cities of India. Speed connectivity of broadband and 5G service will be adding value to this.

If we talk about the speed of the internet in other countries, in the US the broadband internet should provide a 25Mbps download speed. In Germany, the broadband speed should be higher or equal to 144 Kbps download speed.

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