Putting to rest all controversy over the Tata Teleservices-Virgin alliance, the department of telecom (DoT) on Friday gave it a clean chit after receiving answers to its queries on whether the tie-up was above board. The DoT said Virgin Mobile India, the company formed under the tie-up, was not operating as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) in India.
In a move that will bring some respite to direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasters and marginally lower charges for users, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to take a second opinion on how to determine the DTH firms annual revenue share that is charged as license fee.
Mobile operators are likely to fiercely oppose the government’s move to allow only two private operators apart from BSNL/MTNL in the 3G space.
