Mobile Developments

The Department of Telecom is finally gearing up for the auction of 3G spectrum all set to start on the 9th of April 9, 2010 (finally). The department has also ramped up its IT network to ensure that the bidding proceeds smoothly at least this time. There has been a lot of discussion about the 3G spectrum and the auction of its license in the recent past and more often than not, it seemed a distant dream for a large majority of the Indian mobile users to avail this facility. The bidding is to be conducted online and the department of telecom has ensured that there would not be any reason for failure from its side. As a precaution it has set up servers in three cities in the country and an additional server to provide back up in the case of a security breach or a calamity. There are also soft copies being generated at regular intervals, hence in the case of any kind of a mishap the data can be loaded using the soft copies. The online auction would continue till 7.30 PM everyday and the various players are also moving their cards very carefully in order to strike a major deal. The various participating companies are also taking up positions across the country and bidding from three or four locations. They have also made preparations to simultaneously back up the data on their own servers as a precaution. Anyone will be able to view the proceedings of the auction by logging in to the DoT website; it will keep providing updated information about the auction and its proceedings all the time. The extra servers are supposed to take care of the load that it might experience and to take a part of the burden to ensure that the server does not crash due to the heavy traffic.In other developments, the 2G licenses which seemed to have a number of irregularities are to be looked into by the department. It is reported that there has been a loss of around Rs. 26,685 crore to the exchequer. The irregularities were observed when the licenses were issued in 2008. Vodafone has also introduced a new browser for its 2G users. The new opera mini is all set to be launched in India with its mobile handsets for 2G enabled mobiles. The advantage of this new browser is that it is aimed at the low cost mobile which would see a substantial growth in the number of subscribers.TRAI is to seek clarification on the delay of introducing Mobile Number Portability in the country. This service was scheduled to have been introduced in January but has been postponed as many of the telecom operators are yet to upgrade their networks. This service essentially provides a consumer the ability to switch from one network to another without changing the phone number. The TRAI chief is to write to the DoT soon seeking clarification on the subject. The discussion is also likely to involve key network operators.