Centre for Internet & Society

Unfettering Stranded Capacity

Posted by Shyam Ponappa at Jun 04, 2015 02:00 PM |
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Government can't control market forces, but can and must fix regulatory issues. First, the good news: the government does appear to be making serious efforts to tackle stranded capacity and stalled projects, as in the instances below. Such issues need to be resolved because of their effect on future investment and employment. Now, the bad news: one part is that some problems need solutions which are fraught with political risk.

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TRAI and the Disclosure of Personal Information

Posted by Nehaa Chaudhari and Vidushi Marda at May 10, 2015 09:16 AM |

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in March 2015 invited comments on its Consultation Paper for the regulation of over-the-top (OTT) services. In an unprecedented wave of public participation, TRAI received over a million e-mails in support of net neutrality.

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Stranded Capacities & Greater Expectations

Posted by Shyam Ponappa at May 10, 2015 07:05 AM |
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India's infrastructure is in a shambles because of stranded capacities that don't connect with unmet needs. Every aspect of infrastructure, such as electricity or broadband for communications, needs to be designed and executed to flow through from end to end.

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Response to TRAI Consultation Paper on Regulatory Framework for Over-the-Top (OTT) Services

Posted by Pranesh Prakash at May 09, 2015 11:27 AM |
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The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) sent a joint response to the TRAI Consultation Paper on Regulatory Framework for Over-the-top (OTT) Services with scholars from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. The response was sent on March 27, 2015.

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Railway Takeaways for Digital India

Posted by Shyam Ponappa at Mar 30, 2015 12:00 PM |
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Extending the approach of the Railway Budget to telecommunications and broadband. For the first time since the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) formed the government last year, we have something more than grand aspirational statements to go by.

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TRAI-ing Times: The Story So Far

Posted by Tarun Krishnakumar at Mar 19, 2015 01:40 AM |
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24th December, 2014 marked a pivotal moment in the Indian experience with network neutrality. On this date, one of India’s largest telecom players, Bharti Airtel, announced the introduction of a new ‘VoIP’ usage policy for its mobile users.

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A Road Map for Digital India

Posted by Shyam Ponappa at Dec 28, 2014 01:25 AM |
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India's current policies for telecommunications don't serve our interests. Here's what must change.

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Transformation, or Drift?

Posted by Shyam Ponappa at Aug 11, 2014 04:57 AM |
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We need transformative policies and incentives with purpose, especially in solar power and digital infrastructure.

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“OTTs Eating Into Our Revenue”: Telcos in India

Posted by Geetha Hariharan at Aug 07, 2014 09:00 AM |
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On August 5, 2014, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India organised a seminar on a regulatory framework for Over-The-Top services. This is a lay discussion of the Seminar and its focus on matters crucial to telecom, the Internet and the existing regulatory framework.

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A Great Start (for the Modi government)

Posted by Shyam Ponappa at Jun 05, 2014 09:00 AM |
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The National Democratic Alliance government has made a terrific start. Time will tell how this plays out, but it has begun decisively and set a sure tone.

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An Infrastructure Road Map

Posted by Shyam Ponappa at May 01, 2014 08:00 PM |
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What should and should not be done by a new government in this crucial sector.

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Extractive Charges on Spectrum & Petroleum

Posted by Shyam Ponappa at Mar 09, 2014 12:00 PM |
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The author examines whether government levies on these critical inputs are beneficial or detrimental.

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Institute for Internet & Society 2014, Pune

Last month, activists, journalists, researchers, and members of civil society came together at the 2014 Institute for Internet & Society in Pune, which was hosted by CIS and funded by the Ford Foundation. The Institute was a week long, in which participants heard from speakers from various backgrounds on issues arising out of the intersection of internet and society, such as intellectual property, freedom of expression, and accessibility, to name a few. Below is an official reporting summarizing sessions that took place.

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An Introduction to Spectrum Sharing

Posted by Beli at Feb 24, 2014 04:05 PM |

We will look at how current technology – mainly GSM, but also CDMA and touching upon LTE - shares spectrum, how they might share spectrum, the trade-off between spectral (in this case, 'trunking') and 'economic' efficiency in the traditional, purely intra-operator shared scenario, and how it might be overcome by inter-operator sharing.

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Centre- or State-Driven Development?

Posted by Shyam Ponappa at Feb 12, 2014 04:47 PM |
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Federalism requires a strong Centre as well as strong states, and effective organisation and coordination -- which can be facilitated by using the Internet.

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For a Telecom Revival

Posted by Shyam Ponappa at Dec 06, 2013 01:00 PM |
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The government announced momentous decisions, subject to Cabinet approval, on telecom policy on December 3.

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Predictability in Infrastructure

Posted by Shyam Ponappa at Nov 18, 2013 08:47 AM |
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Systematic planning and execution can reduce the need for crisis management in infrastructure and manufacturing.

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Ambiguity in the App Store: Understanding India’s emerging IT sector in light of IP

Posted by Samantha Cassar at Oct 24, 2013 01:00 PM |

Mobile applications hold immense potential for India but are not fully understood by even their own developers in the context of India’s intellectual property (IP) regime. This is the first in a series of blog posts introducing CIS's new access to knowledge research initiative that seeks to understand how stakeholders encounter India’s IP law and what this means for the mobile app ecosystem, and in turn, the Indian mobile user. This research also aims to address problematic policy areas for innovation and protection for developers, as well as to comment on India’s regime with respect to the emerging mobile app sector.

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Regrouping for Growth - Interest Rates - III

Posted by Shyam Ponappa at Sep 06, 2013 01:05 PM |
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Aside from muddling along, the choices are to try to grow and retain capital to staunch the gap temporarily, or to settle for low growth and capital flight.

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TRAI Consultation Paper on Spectrum

Posted by Shyam Ponappa and A.B. Beliappa at Aug 31, 2013 04:30 AM |
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Shyam Ponappa and A.B.Beliappa worked on this submission to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on their spectrum consultation paper. The submission was made on August 21, 2013.

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