S B ORDER NO 08/2019: STANDARD OPERATING
PROCEDURE (SOP) FOR HANDLING OF UNCLAIMED ACCOUNTS/CERTIFICATE IDENTIFIED UNDER
SENIOR CITIZEN WELFARE FUND (SCWF) RULES 2016
******************
SPECIAL
DRIVE FOR ACTIVATION OF END USERS AND ACCESS POINTS ON IPPB OPERATIONS
MOC SH. RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD LAUNCHES MARITIME COMMUNICATION SERVICES
IN INDIA
Ministry
of Communications
SHRI
PRASAD ALSO LAUNCHED A WEB PORTAL FOR REPORTING OF STOLEN MOBILES.
Posted On: 13 SEP 2019
7:46PM by PIB Delhi
Union Minister for
Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice
Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad has launched the maritime communication services at
Mumbai today. He said that Maritime Connectivity will enable high-end support
to those in sea by providing access to Voice, Data and Video services while
traveling on sailing vessels, cruise liners, ships in India, using satellite
technology.
Nelco, India's leading
VSAT solutions provider is the first Indian company that will now provide
quality broadband services to the maritime sector. Nelco through global
partnerships, infrastructure including transponder capacity on satellite of
ISRO Indian Space Research Organization) and a comprehensive service portfolio
will help Energy, Cargo and Cruise vessels by enhancing operational efficiency,
improving crew welfare and enabling customer services. The IFMC licence has not
only enabled connectivity for on-board users on ships but also brings
operational efficiencies for shipping companies which were less evolved until
now.
In December 2018, the
Government of India announced the licenses for In-flight and Maritime
Communications (IFMC) that allows voice and internet services while flying over
the Indian skies and sailing in Indian waters, both for international and
Indian aircrafts and vessels. The IFMC license is a key initiative of the
Telecom Ministry, a move to liberalise satellite communication services in
India.
Speaking on this
occasion, Mr. P J Nath, MD and CEO of NELCO said that they will also be
offering a bouquet of digital services to cater to the needs of the various
types of maritime vessels.Shri Prasad also launched a web portal for reporting
of stolen mobiles for tracing purposes in the august presence of MoS,
Communications Shri Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre.
International Mobile
Equipment Identity (IMEI) is supposed to be an unique identity of a mobile
phone device. Generally, a phone with one/two slots of SIM card is programmed
with one/two IMEI number as the case may be. IMEI number being programmable,
some miscreants do reprogram the IMEI number, which results in cloning of IMEI
causing multiple phone devices with same IMEI number. As on date, there are
many cases of cloned/duplicated IMEI handsets in the network.
If such IMEI is
blocked, a large number of mobile phones will get blocked being handsets with
same IMEI causing inconvenience to many genuine customers. Thus, there is a
need to eliminate duplicate/fake IMEI mobile phones from the network.
Accordingly, a project
called Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) system has been undertaken by
the DoT for addressing security, theft and other concerns including
reprogramming of mobile handsets.
. The major objectives of the project include
following:
· Blocking of
lost/stolen mobile phones across mobile networks thus discouraging theft of
mobile phones
·
·Facilitate in
tracing of such reported lost/stolen mobile phones
·
Prevention of mobile
devices with duplicate and fake IMEIs in the network
·
Curtail the use of
counterfeit mobile devices
·
Reduced health risks
to the users with the control of use of counterfeit mobile phones
·
Improved QoS and
reduced call drops with reduction in use of counterfeit mobile devices
Inflight and Maritime
Telecom Connectivity
In a major policy
decision, Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications had
notified the Flight and Maritime Connectivity (FMC) Rules, 2018 on 14th December,
2018 permitting voice and data service provisioning in flights and ships. The
policy intent of the Government is to open the airspace and territorial waters
for telecommunication services for general public which was not possible
earlier due to lack of enabling rules. Rules envisage creation of satellite
gateway within India for providing telecom services in aircraft and ships
through Indian licensed service providers. Further, Indian satellite bandwidth
has to be utilised. If a foreign satellite is used, it has to be approved by
ISRO.
Only the authorized
IFMC service provider, can provide wireless voice or data or both type of
services on ships within Indian territorial waters and on aircraft within or
above India or Indian territorial waters. Territorial waters are 12 nautical
miles from baseline of the coast and beyond that is the Exclusive Economic Zone
upto 200 nautical miles (1 nautical mile is 1.852 Kms.). 7 Companies viz. (i)
M/s Hughes Communications India Ltd., (ii) M/s Tatanet Services Ltd., (iii) M/s
Indo Teleports Ltd., (iv) M/s BSNL, (v) M/s Reliance JioInfocomm Ltd., (vi) M/s
Cloudcast Digital Ltd. & (vii) M/s Bharti Airtel Ltd. have taken the
authorisation to provide Inflight and Maritime Connectivity (IFMC) services
till date. Gateways for providing services have been established by M/s Hughes
Communications India Ltd. at Gurgaon &Mehboob Nagar (Telangana) and M/s
Tatanet Services Ltd. at Dehradun &Navi Mumbai. BSNL is also in process for
establishing the satellite gateway at Ghaziabad for IFMC service, in tie up
with Inmarsat.
Satellite bandwidth
has been provided on Indian Satellites by ISRO to M/s Hughes Communications
India & M/s Tatanet Services Ltd., for providing IFMC service. BSNL is in
process of taking satellite bandwidth of Inmarsat satellite through ISRO.
M/s Tatanet Services Ltd. are licensed VSAT & Internet Service Providers
and can provide data connectivity services which can be used for data as well
as voice communication over IP. They have tied up with shipping companies (such
as L&T Shipping Ltd.) for maritime connectivity services and have also
installed the remote end equipment in the vessels. Services will be provided
using GST-14 satellite of ISRO in Ku-band (12 - 18 Ghz). M/s Tatanet Services
Ltd. have invested Rs.20 Crore (approx.) for establishing the satellite gateway
and satellite connectivity for providing maritime connectivity services which
is being inaugurated on 13th September 2019 from Mumbai.
Issues regarding Inflight telecom services
For inflight services,
Indian airline companies do not have on-board equipment for delivering the
services. The equipment has to be retrofitted to the aircraft.Retrofitting is
costly and will entail grounding of aircraft. Presently, other than Spice Jet
none of the airlines are ready. Inmarsat equipment are available on few of the
Spice Jet aircraft (13 numbers). Services will be available on these aircraft
once BSNL gateway is ready and ISRO permission is available for Inmarsat
satellite bandwidth. Two meetings with Indian airline companies alongwith
Ministry of Civil Aviation were conducted and it was concluded that no
regulatory issues are pending in DoT or Ministry of Civil Aviation. Airlines
have been requested to start the services in coordination with the IFMC service
providers at the earliest.
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