After telecom operators, Scindia met telecom equipment makers including Dixon Technologies, Nokia, Ericsson, Sterlite Technologies and VVDN [File]
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Telecom operators in a meeting with Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia expressed concerns over regulator Trai excluding messaging and calling apps like WhatsApp and Telegram in its recommendation on new licensing rules, sources aware of the development said.

Operators also discussed issues concerning adjusted gross revenue payments, they added.

The meeting was attended by Reliance Jio Chairman Akash Ambani, Vodafone Idea CEO Akshaya Moondra, Bharti Airtel MD and CEO Gopal Vittal and BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Robert J Ravi.

“All telecom operators expressed concern over the exclusion of over-the-top apps by Trai in its recommendation on Service Authorisation. Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel raised the issue of adjusted gross revenue,” a source said.

Telecom operators have been demanding for a long time to bring calling and messaging apps, called as OTTs, under the ambit of telecom licences as they provide calling and messaging services like any telecom operator.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) did not heed to the demand of telecom operators and kept the apps out of its recommendation on the new licensing rules under the Telecommunications Act 2023.

Vodafone Idea (VIL) shared its concern on the impact of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) issue on the health of the sector, which was also supported by Bharti Airtel.

Last week, the Supreme Court rejected the VIL curative petition on the grounds that it did not meet the criteria for the petition.

VIL has an AGR liability of ₹70,320 crore and Bharti Airtel has about ₹21,500 crore.

Scindia during the meeting discussed the menace of pesky calls and SMS.

“The operators have some concern over unsolicited commercial calls which the DoT has taken note of,” the source said.

After telecom operators, Scindia met telecom equipment makers including Dixon Technologies, Nokia, Ericsson, Sterlite Technologies and VVDN.

Representational image of the BSNL logo on a building
| Photo Credit: G.R.N. Somashekar

The Union government confirmed a data breach in BSNL’s systems, saying that the breach was reported on May 20.

“Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) reported possible intrusion and Data Breach at BSNL on 20.05.2024,” Minister of State for Communications Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani said on Wednesday in a written response to a Lok Sabha query by Congress MP Amar Singh.

While the breach led to “no service outage,” Dr. Pemmasani said, “one [BSNL] server was having the data similar to the sample data shared by CERT-In.”

An inter-ministerial committee has been formed to “conduct audit of the telecom networks and suggest remedial measures for prevention of data breaches in the telecom networks”, Dr. Pemmasani said.

A report in June by the London-headquartered Athenian Tech said that this “breach involves a substantial amount of sensitive data including International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) numbers, SIM card information, and Home Location Register (HLR) details, among other critical data.”

The data was “critical” enough to provide hackers an opening into BSNL’s networks, the report said, and let attackers “clone” SIM cards of users.