After Aadhaar dare boomerang, Trai chief R S Sharma putting up a brave face

Good to have consolidation in telecom, says Trai chief R S Sharma

R S Sharma, chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), has been at the centre of a controversy ever since he threw a Twitter challenge on safety of Aadhaar by putting out his unique number on the micro-blogging site. Social media enthusiasts immediately got active disclosing his personal details including mobile number, bank account details, address and even frequent flier ID. While some claimed to have deposited token money into his accounts, others took to the e-commerce route to place cash on delivery orders at the outgoing Trai chairman’s residence. Sharma, putting on a brave face through the ordeal, maintained that availability of his personal data had nothing to do with his Aadhaar number being made public. However, in his conversation with Kiran Rathee, he chose to stay away from the issue, which had turned social media red hot. Edited excerpts:

Your three-year tenure is coming to an end on August 9. How would you rate the regulatory regime under you?

I do not believe in individuals. Whatever Trai has done is a collective achievement of all our people. I don't take credit for 

anything which has been done. Also, I have learnt a lot from Trai in the area of regulation and so I feel enriched. We have taken transparency and consultation to a new level... With regard to other achievements, we have been able to successfully look at all aspects of the telecom ecosystem, be it quality of service, interconnection or tariffs. For the last five years or so, data has become very prominent in telecom. In fact, the Indian telecom system is consuming more data than the US and China put together. The shift from voice to data is clear and therefore we are looking at newer areas to keep pace. We have also introduced some new systems and data-driven regulations in some sense. We have even introduced blockchain technology. We are leveraging technology to ensure that we remain updated and the cost of regulation comes down. Again, things have been done not because of me, but collectively.

What next for you after the Trai stint?

Life will go on. I have actually not thought about anything. I have completed about 40 years of public service, I will see but till now I have not planned anything.

Is there any work which you feel has been left unfinished?

This is not about an individual, Trai is an institution and there will be a pipeline of things always. ... I have no regrets….

During your term, you witnessed Reliance Jio disrupting the telecom market. How much longer will the disruption continue and make incumbent operators bleed further?

I do not want to comment on the market dynamics, players and businessmen involved in that. What I am saying is that as far as I can see, there is intense competition in the market, prices have come down and there has been a lot of consolidation too. I think consolidation is good because three to four players in the market is normal around the world. So I don't think it is bad. Having said that, all these things are business decisions and I don't want to comment on that.

When will the spectrum auction recommendations come?

We will give it soon.

Will it come under your tenure?

I cannot give a deadline but Trai will be issuing it shortly.

India is talking about 5G at a time when quality of telecom services is poor. Is the timing right for 5G in this country?

I don't think there is any contradiction between the two issues. Quality of service is something which we keep working on and now the new norms have been put in place. These norms will slowly do their job. As far as 5G is concerned, I think India is a perfect case for this technology introduction because we don't need to follow the best, we can be the leaders in that. We have lots of use cases linked to 5G in social sector areas like agriculture, irrigation etc. There is a huge scope there.

Justice B N Srikrishna-led panel submitted its recommendations recently on data privacy. What are your views on the report since Trai also came out with its paper on the subject?

I have not had a chance to read the recommendations as I was out for the weekend to my village.

But the Srikrishna panel has not recommended that people own their data, a key proposal of Trai. Isn’t it?

I don't think comparisons should be made. What Srikrishna committee is doing is for the whole nation. We have not touched upon those aspects which are general in nature in our recommendations because we were aware that Srikrishna panel is doing that work. So, we had limited ourselves only to the telecom-specific issues. I don't think you can really compare them.