The industry committee set up to resolve the controversy over limited mobility telecom services attempted to arrive at common ground at its first meeting today. Terming the talks as positive, Vinod Vaish, secretary, department of telecommunications, said discussions would resume on Friday.
The meeting was, however, held without Mukesh Ambani, chairman, Reliance Industries, and Sunil Mittal, chairman, Bharti group. Cellular telephony companies were represented by Rajeev Chandrashekhar, chairman, BPL, and Asim Ghosh, managing director Hutchison. Basic telephony operators were represented by S Ramakrishan, managing director, Tata Teleservices, and Shankar Adawal, vice-president, Reliance Infocomm. Prithipal Singh, chairman, BSNL, was also present.
Industry sources said the two sides today aired their views on limited mobility. They said the panel might go through the licence conditions of the basic telephony operators clause by clause.
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One of the options that could be considered is to allow basic telephony operators full mobility by paying an entry cost on the lines of what the fourth cellular operators in each circle paid for their licences.
Issues relating to spectrum allocation for cellular operators and roaming services for basic telephony operators will also be taken up. The panel, set up by Communications Minister Arun Shourie, is slated to submit its report to the government by March 1.