1. The Indian government has set up a committee to select the new chairman for the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The current chairman, Dr. J. S. Sarma, is set to retire in the month of May this year.
According to media reports, the search and selection committee includes the Cabinet Secretary, Principal Secretary to the Indian PM, Advisor on Infrastructure to the Indian PM, Telecom Secretary, and Personnel Secretary of the government.
A report (attributed to sources) on the Indian business website MoneyControl suggested that the current Economic Affairs Secretary R. Gopalan may be considered for the post of TRAI chairman.
2. Canada-based BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has finally given into the demands of the Indian security agencies by setting up a server in the country which enables the agencies to monitor the content of its BlackBerry Messenger Services. The server has been tested by the officials and they are reportedly satisfied with the solution provided to them. (Read RCR India’s coverage of GoI-BlackBerry impasse)
The Department of Telecom (DoT) has decided to directly tap nearly 5000 corporate servers in the country to intercept emails passing through BlackBerry Enterprise Server as the company could not set up a local server for this, The Hindu Businessline reported.
Now the government might go after other platforms like Nokia intellisync email, Windows active sync email, and Motorola’s mobile messaging services. It also reportedly has plans to intercept web-based messaging services offered by Yahoo, Google and Skype.
3. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended lowering the FDI cap on telecom tower companies from 100% to 74%. A ET report says that the move will “adversely impact… tower units.”
“We plan to bring all forms of telecom services under a unified licence regime. Existing infrastructure providers would be required to take new unified licenses as soon as they come into being and the conditions in the unified license will apply to tower companies too,” the ET report states, quoting an unnamed TRAI official.
