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Got feared of Mumbai road traffic?  Then Traffic police have the solution to your problem. A month later, SMS service is going to be started in the city which will give updates on traffic situation on the roads at different spots across the city.

A convenient five-digit number will help you to navigate the traffic of the city.  Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sanjay Barve said, “We have already applied for the number with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and expect to start the service in a month’s time.”

Citing an example, Barve said, “Suppose you wish to travel from Chembur to Dadar and are doubtful about the traffic situation at Everard Nagar junction. You just SMS ‘LOC REP’, which stands for location report, to the five-digit number and immediately get a reply.”

He said that support infrastructure like integrating of the traffic control room with the SMS service by the way of which users will be able to get the updates is already being created. He told that sponsoring companies for the project are yet to be selected. Talks are going so that the cost to the end user is minimized.

“The user will have to pay higher SMS charges to get the elicited reply as per the regulations but he can at least plan out his trip in a better way and take another route to complete the journey,” Barve added.

He told that the service will also help the private companies to advertise as the reply message will also include a small message from the sponsor.

Tags: Mumbai, Mumbai Trafic, SMS, Sponsor, Traffic, TRAI

Information and Broadcasting Ministry will soon spread the Conditional Access System (CAS) in the area of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. The ministry told in the meeting with Multi System Operators (MSO) on Monday that they want to implement CAS all over India successfully.

The possibilities and situation to implement CAS in 55 cities are deeply discussed in the meeting. Issue on configure the Digital entertainment and FDI in cable industry are also discussed in the meeting. According to the sources, Government wants to apply CAS in the first step to those areas of Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai which are deprived of this service. Comments on CAS are invited from all the partners and concerned groups within next week.

Incablenet Executive Director (Director’s Service) Ashok Ansukhani has given his approval on the activities. He said,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Asha Swaroop was very positive for dispersal of CAS. MSO and Cable Operators Federation of India (COFI) are asked for their remarks and advice regarding the matter within next week.”

Ministry also wants to know how MSO and cable operators are preparing to spread CAS.

Till end of the last year, TRAI had asked Information and Broadcasting Ministry to fix the dates for implementing CAS in more than 55 cities after the proposal of Digital Roadmap.

Tags: CAS, Delhi, Information, Kolkata, Mumbai, TRAI

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has issued a warning to impose a fine of Rs 20,000 on operator for letting telemarketing companies make unsolicited calls.

TRAI said on Monday that if the rules and regulations for telemarketing calls and messages are not followed properly then a fine of up to Rs 20,000 can be imposed to Mobile Service Providers.

This is compared with the earlier fine of Rs 500 per telemarketing call made from an operator’s network.

The regulator has included the clauses in the ‘unsolicited commercial communications (UCC) 2008′ by amending the regulation.

Trai said in a release on Monday that every telecom service provider, who does not comply with the provisions of the regulations, will be fined up to Rs 5,000 for the first instance. For the second time, the operator could be fined up to Rs 20,000.

Prior to the amendment, the regulator had suggested it will levy a flat fee of Rs 500 from defaulting operators and telemarketing companies. However, the regulator had given the power to service providers to disconnect erring telemarketers’ lines.

The objective as told is to increase the effectiveness of compliance of these regulations by providing financial disincentive to non-compliant telecom service providers and thereby reduce the nuisance and inconvenience to the subscribers of telephone and mobile services from unsolicited telemarketing calls and messages.

Trai set up the ‘national do not call’ (NDNC) registry to list the numbers of users who did not want to be troubled by telemarketing callers. It is effective from October 2007.More than 80 lakh mobile customers has been registered to NDNC till now.

Tags: Technology, Telecom, Telemarketing, TRAI