The new national telecom policy, which has been approved by the union cabinet, will abolish the roaming charges.
The abolition of roaming charges will allow subscribers to use their numbers from one part of the country in another without worrying about additional charges. The union cabinet gave its approval to the new telecom policy after making minor changes to the policy that will determine the way in which telecom industry is regulated by the government.
Ambika Soni, minister for information and broadcasting announced that the National Telecom Policy has been approved and will now replace rules thaw were formulated a decade ago. The government moved to create a new telecom policy after the growing sector was hit by a spectrum auction sandal leading to a loss of multi billion dollars to the government in lost revenues.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said, "The target is one nation full mobile number portability and working towards one nation free roaming.” The government is planning to ask the telecom services providers to stop charging roaming charges to their subscribers within the country.
The roaming charges will take some time to be removed as the Department of Telecom will first prepare a mechanism for the phasing out of the charges. Experts say that the move will greatly benefit the consumers but will negatively impact the telecom service providers in the small term.
Telecom sector to come under new licence system - Himalayan Times
HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE
KATHMANDU: The government has decided not to allow telecom service providers to upgrade their services, if they do not come under the unified licence system.
The information published in a gazette on May 15 said that no telecom service provider can upgrade its service without obtaining a licence under the unified licence system. The government wants to make the unified licence system mandatory, said spokesperson at Nepal Telecommunications Authority Kailash Prasad Neupane, adding that the enactment of the unified licence system will bring uniformity in the policy.
The gazette notification has clearly said that no rural telecom service provider and limited mobility operator will be allowed to expand their service areas or even upgrade their technology, he said. “Telecom service providers who refuse to take licence according to the provision of unified licence system will not get permission to operate third generation (3G) and fourth generation (4G) services,” said Neupane.
The unified licence system aims at collecting more revenue from the telecom sector, according to the authority.
“The notification has said that a telecom service provider will have to pay Rs 357.5 million as licence fee and Rs 20.13 billion licence renewal fee,” he said. Telecom service providers must renew their licence every 10 years according to the gazette notification, informed Neupane.
Similarly, the new provision has also stated that telecom service providers should pay two per cent of their income for Rural Telecom Development Fund and four per cent royalty every year.
Currently, there are six telecom service providers in the country. Among them, three –– Nepal Satellite, STM and Smart –– have acquired a licence as rural telecom service providers. Similarly, UTL is operating limited mobility service. Nepal Telecom and Ncell are operating services throughout the country.
However, the licence condition and licence renewal fee and royalty structure varies from one service provider to other. NTA claims the new provision will end the ambiguity in the policy of telecom services. On the other hand, critics said that the new provision is not pragmatic and will bring in more ambiguity in the telecom industry. “The main bone of contention is whether or not the authority will be able to collect billions of rupees from Ncell and Nepal Telecom,” a source at the authority said.
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Bouygues Telecom Selects Acme Packet for IMS Network - Yahoo Finance
BEDFORD, MA--(Marketwire -05/23/12)- Acme Packet® (APKT), the leader in session delivery networks, today announced that Bouygues Telecom, a leading fixed and mobile service provider in France, is deploying Acme Packet Net-Net® Session Director session border controllers (SBCs) in its IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network, supplied and integrated by Alcatel-Lucent. Acme Packet's SBCs fulfill numerous IMS functions at both the access and interconnect borders, ensuring security, interoperability, and quality in the network.
Bouygues Telecom is deploying IMS to support multiple services, including migration of existing residential voice to voice over IP (VoIP), interconnecting with other service providers and launching new services, such as visual voice mail.
The Net-Net Session Director fulfills critical IMS functional requirements at the access and interconnect borders of Bouygues Telecom's network. In the access network, SBCs provide the critical Proxy-Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF) and IMS-Access Gateway Function (AGW) for securing, interoperating, and controlling all SIP-based services to subscribers. The Net-Net Session Director provides Interconnect Border Control Function (I-BCF) and the Transition Gateway (TrGW) for controlling fixed and mobile SIP traffic at interconnect borders, encompassing both internal interconnection between Bouygues' fixed and mobile networks as well as between the IMS network and other service providers.
Bouygues Telecom is using Acme Packet's interoperability feature set that includes SIP normalization and SIP to SIP-I interworking that helps accelerate time-to-market and reduce operational costs as the network expands. Net-SAFE®, Acme Packet's security framework, provides denial of service (DoS) attack prevention, topology hiding, and access control to protect Bouygues Telecom's IMS network and ensure service availability. Other key features include accounting for billing and traffic planning, as well as admission control, routing, and quality of service marking for service level agreement assurance.
"Acme Packet's SBC is a key part of our IMS network, built to enable innovative services and deliver enhanced customer experience to our fixed and mobile customers," commented Jean-Paul Arzel, Bouygues Telecom networks director. "We chose the Acme Packet solution due to their culture of innovation, the rich functionality and scalability of its session border controllers, and the company's impressive track record in enabling trusted, high-quality VoIP, and IP interactive communication services."
"Acme Packet brings extensive experience in helping our customers build next generation communications networks," commented Mario Oliveira, Acme Packet's vice president of Europe, Middle East, and Africa, and Caribbean and Latin America sales. "Our IMS solution portfolio delivers the security, interoperability, and quality functionalities that Bouygues Telecom and leading service providers demand to be successful in their migration to end-to-end IP communications."
About Acme Packet
Acme Packet (APKT), the leader in session delivery network solutions, enables the trusted, first-class delivery of next-generation voice, data and unified communications services and applications across IP networks. Our Net-Net product family fulfills demanding security, service assurance and regulatory requirements in service provider, enterprise and contact center networks. Based in Bedford, Massachusetts, Acme Packet designs and manufactures its products in the USA, selling them through over 220 reseller partners worldwide. More than 1,600 customers in 107 countries have deployed over 16,000 Acme Packet systems, including 88 of the top 100 service providers and 41 of the Fortune 100. For more information visit www.acmepacket.com.
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About Bouygues Telecom
Created in 1994, Bouygues Telecom has 11,304,000 mobile customers and 1,241,000 fixed broadband customers, and over 1,500,000 client companies. Bouygues Telecom is committed to continually enhancing the customer experience for its mobile and fixed telephone, TV and Internet services. Each day, the company's 9,800 employees develop solutions aligned with changing customer needs and deliver efficient support.
After pioneering the mobile talk-plan concept in France in 1996, Bouygues Telecom introduced groundbreaking unlimited call plans: Millennium (1999) and neo (2006).
In 2007, Bouygues Telecom introduced the first fixed-mobile solutions aimed at professionals.
Bouygues Telecom acquired its own fixed network in 2008 and became an Internet Service Provider (ISP), launching the Bbox broadband router.
In 2009, Bouygues Telecom invented the "all-in-one" solution with ideo the first quadruple play offer in the market.
In 2010, Bouygues Telecom launched Bbox fibre, its very-high-speed offer, and began investing in fibre-to-the-home in high-density areas.
In July 2011, Bouygues Telecom introduced mobile telephony "2.0" with B&YOU, the first web-based, SIM-only call plan.
Bouygues Telecom's mobile network covers 99% of the population. Its 3G+ network provides mobile Internet access for 94% of the population.
Bouygues Telecom is the only operator to be awarded "NF Service Centre de Relation Client" certification from French standards agency AFNOR Certification for all its consumer activities (mobile and fixed). Customer relations centres, a distribution network of 630 Bouygues Telecom Club stores, and a website available 24/7 combine to ensure optimum customer service.
Acme Packet Safe Harbor Statement
Statements contained herein that are not historical fact may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements may relate to, among other things, expected financial and operating results, expected growth rates, future stock-based compensation and amortization expenses, future business prospects and market conditions. Such forward-looking statements do not constitute guarantees of future performance and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These include, but are not limited to: the amount of stock-based compensation awarded; the applicable Company stock price used to determine stock-based compensation; the exercise pattern of employee stock options; difficulties expanding the Company's customer base; difficulties leveraging market opportunities; difficulties providing solutions that meet the needs of customers; poor product sales; long sales cycles; difficulties developing new products; difficulties in relationships with vendors and partners; higher risks in international operations; difficulties managing rapid growth; difficulties managing the Company's financial performance; the ability to hire and retain employees and appropriately staff operations; the Company's cash needs; the impact of new accounting pronouncements and increased competition. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested in any forward-looking statements are contained in the Company's recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those factors discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in such filings.
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