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The government is more concerned with Telegram, fast becoming the preferred medium for many people The government has said it expects popular social media applications such as WhatsApp and Facebook, which have large user bases in the country, to be responsible. In a bid to check the spread of fake news through social media and messaging platforms — leading to mob lynching in some cases — the government is exploring the possibility of blocking WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram. The government is also trying to curb child abuse and pornography spread through these platforms. The government has already issued notices on WhatsApp to keep a check on content. But, it is more concerned with Telegram, fast becoming the preferred medium for many people. Sources said the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had expressed concerns about Telegram to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). Based on the letter from MeitY, DoT had asked the telecom an...

RJio is choking our networks: telcos The war that had so far been brewing silently between incumbent telecom operators and  Reliance Jio   has come out in the open. Industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) fired a salvo at Jio on Monday by writing to Telecom Secretary J S Deepak alleging that Jio was masquerading full-blown services in the guise of a trial, which they said amounted to predatory pricing. The COAI's letter was a response to one sent by Jio to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) claiming that incumbents were not providing enough interconnect bandwidth. In response, the incumbents have alleged that the burgeoning voice traffic emanating from  RJio   is choking their networks, given that 1.5 million subscribers of Jio are calling people who are on the networks of other leading telcos. When a subscriber of one network makes a call to a subscriber of another network, the point at which the two networks connect are known ...

No mobile handset will be sold in India without the facility of identifying the location through Satellite based GPS from January 2018, the notification said From January 1 next year, all   mobile phones   sold in India will come with a panic button enabling users, especially women, to send out distress signals in case of an emergency. A notification by the department of telecommunications said no mobile phone handset shall be sold in India from January 1, 2017, without the facility of having a panic button and all phones need to compulsorily have global positioning system (GPS) facility from January 1, 2018. "Technology is solely meant to make human life better and what better than using it for the security of women," Communications and Information & Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said. Once a panic button is pressed, a call will be directed to the emergency contact - family, friend or police. Though, details are yet to be finalised. For feature ...