Telcos pay off Rs 14,700 cr AGR dues; RBI says ‘no red flags’ raised, but closely monitoring
The Supreme Court, last Friday, came down heavily on the telecom companies for not paying dues to the tune of Rs 1.47 lakh crore to the government.
The Wireless Monitoring Authority (WMO) of the Department of Telecom has stepped up mobile signal spillage monitoring in border areas, including Rajouri and Poonch of Jammu and Kashmir, a Department of Telecom note for June stated.
“These monitoring exercises were conducted in coordination with Intelligence Bureau during June, 2019. During the exercise, cellular signal spillage from Telecom operators of Pakistan were detected in Uri area of J-K. Some areas of Rajouri and Poonch of J-K will be covered in next few weeks in coordination with Security agencies”, the note said.
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Under the Measurement of spillage signals from across the border area, WMO has conducted monitoring exercise to measure spillage of cellular signals from Foreign Telecom Operators within Indian Territory of Uri and Boniyar area of J-K. These monitoring exercise were conducted in coordination with IB during June, 2019, as per the note
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In a related issue, WMO successfully detected source of interference reported by China through ITU (International Telecom Union). The administration of China through ITU had reported unknown signals in frequency band 406MHZ emerging from Korba area of Chhattisgarh. These signals are reportedly causing interference to EPIRB frequencies which operates through CISPAS SARSAT staellite system for ensuring safety of life at sea, the same note added.
“Understanding the gravity of this international issue, WMO had deputed three teams from Raipur, Nagpur and Bhopal in Korba area to search and detect the source of interference. The team successfully searched and identified the interfering signals emanating from locomotives of Indian Railways at Korba area. The report has been submitted by the team to the Department for further necessary action, the note added.
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