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.
