The industry body on Monday said it was “shocked that some of the papers appeared to have been crafted and timed to serve the interests of new players, with complete disregard for the massive investments made by the existing operators”.
While the regulator should welcome new entrants into the sector, it must not extend to adapting policy measures to either promote or discriminate between existing and new players, the lobby group said. According to a former Trai official, never before has an industry body accused a regulator of being biased and, therefore, it is a matter of grave concern.
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The industry said an inconsistent policy framework would hurt investor sentiment. This may further impact the rollout of networks, especially in rural areas, which would not be in the long term interest of consumers. COAI urged both the government and the regulator to address and resolve concerns.
Some of the recent decisions and policy consultations undertaken by Trai have left the Industry worried, as these appear to be distorting the level-playing field within the sector and are regressive in nature. Rajan Mathews, director-general, COAI, said: “A clear, stable and predictable policy environment is the cornerstone of any regulatory regime that fosters industry growth and customer service. Over the past few months, the industry has seen an unprecedented deluge of discussion papers from Trai. Some of the consultation papers appear to be heavily loaded in favour of new players and point towards a bias against the existing operators. We hope Trai will take a more balanced view on issues impacting the entire industry and ensure a level-playing field.”
The industry body praised the role played by Trai and the Department of Telecom (DoT) in formulating a progressive regulatory environment, which has enabled the growth of telecom services in India and empowered a billion Indians with the benefits of telephony. Some of the recent initiatives by DoT, such as harmonisation of spectrum, merger and spectrum trading guidelines and efforts to provide government buildings for putting up sites have been supportive of the Industry challenges, while the operators on their part remain fully committed to the government’s Digital India vision.
To buttress their case, the industry highlighted some of the moves by Trai. COAI said ‘mobile termination charge’ was first introduced in 2003, and is acknowledged by Trai and DoT as the single-most determinant factor of rural rollouts over the years. It was reviewed in 2009 and 2015. The present Interconnect Regime was implemented by Trai in March 2015 and it was clearly stated by Trai itself in 2015 that the next review would take place in 2017-18. “It is, therefore, surprising to see the urgency displayed by Trai in this matter, with the consultation process initiated at such an early date and despite the fact that the matter is sub-judice in various courts of law. It appears the exercise is aimed at hurting the financial and operational viability of existing operators,” said COAI’s release.
Another consultation paper that has not gone down well with industry players is the one where Trai has sought to regulate the charges for termination of internet telephony calls without even finalising the routing and numbering framework. Trai is trying to regulate the price of a service, which is niche and largely unknown, said COAI. The industry is unable to comprehend this urgency when contrasted with the fact that Trai itself has chosen not to regulate the prices of other niche services such as HD channels, toll-free services, international calling cards, etc.
The industry also came out strongly against the call-drop regulation, which has been finally set aside by the apex court. The COAI called it a ‘draconian’ measure built to financially penalise and foster perceptions, which discredit existing mobile operators, in order to favour new players with empty data networks.
The bias is also evident from the fact that Trai in an unprecedented move reduced the block size of 2300 megahertz (Mhz) band spectrum from 20 Mhz to 10 Mhz, only to accommodate existing broadband wireless access holders who would have otherwise crossed the band-specific cap beyond 30 Mhz.