The Cabinet on Wednesday cleared the long-pending compensation of Rs 1,250 crore for public sector telecom company BSNL to support rural landline connections installed before April 1, 2002.

"The Cabinet approves subsidy of Rs 1,250 crore to BSNL as compensation for deficit incurred by BSNL in operating rural wire-line connections," said Frank Noronha, the government's Principal Spokesperson, on Twitter.

Amid simmering tension and ongoing parleys between new entrant and private incumbent operators over connectivity, state-owned telecom firm BSNL has said it has provided “sufficient points of interconnect” to Reliance Jio and can augment it more based on requirement.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) CMD Anupam Shrivastava said that there has been no fresh request from Jio for increasing the capacity at points of interconnect, and added “should they make an enquiry, we will augment the capacity.”

Markets were down as profit taking emerged in rate sensitive shares after sharp gains in the previous session which lifted the benchmarks to 18-month highs. Further, IT stocks staged a recovery in noon trades after weakness in early deals.

At 12:45pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was down by 221 points at 28,825 and the Nifty50 slipped 69 points at 8,884. In the broader markets, BSE Midcap and the Smallcap indices eased between 0.3%-0.6% each. Market breadth was weak with 1485 losers and 968 gainers on the BSE.

INFOMARK, a Korean company, well known globally as an expert in 3G/4G mobile communication devices is all set to make inroads into the Indian Market through BSNL, which has approved a trial run of its WiMax mobile routers in the Kerala Telecom Circle for two weeks.

INFOMARK, who developed mobile WiMax/WiFi routers for the first time in the world and have been leading 3G/4G Markets in Korea and other countries such as USA, Japan and Malaysia intend to cooperate with BSNL to provide cutting-edge technology product named "Compact Egg" to India.

State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd today termed Reliance Jio’s entry into the market as a “challenge” for all operators, but said it expects to match the intense competition “tariff-by-tariff”.

BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava told PTI that the telecom PSU will adopt an aggressive stance on tariffs going forward.

After Reliance created a stir in the telecom world with its aggressive data service tariff plans, priced as low as around Rs 50 for each GB, state-owned BSNL has made an offer of less than Re 1 per GB. BSNL from September 9, will put on offer “unlimited” wireline broadband priced at a monthly pack of Rs 249. The company issued a statement in which it said, “BSNL is going to launch a very cost-effective and affordable promotional unlimited Broadband plan Experience Unlimited BB 249 from September 9, 2016.”

State-run telecom firm BSNL has completed installation of 2,199 mobile towers in naxal- affected regions across 10 states, as part of efforts to strengthen security mechanism to combat insurgency in those areas.

"We had time till December 2016 to complete the project but all the 2,199 solar powered mobile towers have been installed and they are operational. This project sets an example for excellent coordination between government and private agencies," BSNL Chairman and MD Anupam Shrivastava told PTI.

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) may launch its 4G services during the next financial year, based on the outcome of a tender to upgrade its network for such services, Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

However, the telecom PSU does not intend to participate in the upcoming spectrum auctions for 4G due to financial and other reasons, Minister of State for Communications Manoj Sinha said in a written reply.

Maximum consumer complaints for poor service and call drops have been received against Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications in the last three years and the trend continues, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

As per data shared by Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha "regarding poor services and call drops received by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai)", nearly one-third complaints received in the first half of 2016 are against Airtel.

The Union Cabinet approved a scheme for BSNL employees which will ensure parity in pension between the serving and the retired staff.

“This decision will benefit over 1.18 lakh pensioners across India,” said Telecom and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday following the Cabinet Meeting which approved pension revision for the public sector firm’s staff who retired prior to June 10, 2013.

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