IMG looking at giving further relief to telcos: Aruna Sundararajan

Away from the issue of interconnect usage charges (IUC), that is at the centre of telecom narrative currently, the government is providing broadband connectivity to panchayats under the ambitious BharatNet project. Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan spoke to Kiran Rathee about the road map of BharatNet and other matters, including the roll out of 5G services. Edited excerpts:
 
Recently, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) came out with a  consultation paper on the next round of spectrum auction. When is the auction expected?
 
Through the consultation process, we will get to know the appetite of the players for more spectrum. Are they ready, are they wanting it? Based on that, the government will take a decision. There is a lot of spectrum which was not sold. So, the government will certainly await the outcome of the consultation process very keenly.

 

Do you think this is the right time for 5G in India?
 
On 5G, we have just set up a committee to prepare a road map. The ecosystem needs to get ready, so we have to start now. The big roll out will not happen now but this is absolutely the time (for 5G in India) because we have the opportunity to leapfrog here.
 
The inter-ministerial group (IMG) has suggested measures to address the financial stress of the telecom sector. The industry is looking for more to tackle the stress. Is anything likely?
 
Last time, the IMG had said this seems to be a period of stress right now and that they (telcos) require liquidity relief. In the long run, the sector is quite vibrant and robust and there is a lot of room for growth. Therefore, we are confining ourselves to giving a set of measures for immediate relief. They (IMG) did not want to comment on longer term issues like licence fee, etc. The relief measures like deferment of spectrum payments will help the telcos in the short run. But the Telecom Commission has already asked the IMG to work out a few more options. So let’s wait for that. The options suggested by IMG will be discussed on September 29 at the Telecom Commission meeting.

 
What are the priorities of the government for the sector?
 
There’s a huge development agenda before the department and the government’s priority will be the BharatNet project. The project will complete connectivity to 100,000 gram panchayats before December. For Digital India and for delivering various digital services, we want to make sure to get BharatNet is done. Currently, 100,000 panchayats have been linked through optical fibre cable, of which 70,000 are service ready. In the remaining months, we want to complete all 100,000, of which 25 per cent is meant for Uttar Pradesh alone…We have plans to provide three types of last-mile connectivity. One is through Wi-Fi, the second is through CSCs (common service centres) and the third is through the telecom service providers (TSPs). I am also happy to note that Vodafone, Airtel, Idea and Reliance Jio have all come forward to take this connectivity to homes and to their towers. So, this is when we really see broadband beginning to happen in India.

 
What else constitutes the development agenda?
 
We want to complete the two major pending projects, which are connectivity to the northeast and coverage of Left Wing Extremism (LWE) areas, where we had provided voice connectivity in the first phase. In the next phase, we will also provide data connectivity in all these areas… We are also looking at Make in India because we are importing 80-85 per cent of all telecom equipment.
 
The IT ministry recently issued notices to smartphone makers seeking details of their security architecture. Has the DoT also sought details from telecom equipment makers?

 
In telecom, we already have a provision which says every single component used in the  Indian network must be in security conformity with our standards. But what we are planning to do is to develop a set of best practices, at the level of infrastructure layer and at data layer, and for both we are compiling a set of best practices. We will be working with all telecom service providers to make sure that is put in place by the end of this year. In addition, we are trying to work with the private sector to see how we can develop security standards testing in India. So, we are working with Indian Institute of Science as well as the Indian IT companies to develop that.

 
In a recent review, it was found that the call drop problem had improved. However, people are still complaining about call drops. How do you check the network quality?
 
The government at the highest level is very concerned about call drops. We know the situation had improved. But, it is also true that of late, there have been lots of problems. When we discussed this at the minister’s level with telcos, they said two things – voice has grown by about 20-25 per cent and data has increased almost five-fold and therefore they need to put up more infrastructure. For that, they need more help from the government. We have already worked out a detailed plan as to how they will step up the infrastructure. They also admitted in certain cases, they have been slow in putting up infrastructure. So, we have now set up a mechanism whereby every fortnight, we are reviewing the roll out of infrastructure and we are going to bind down the telcos to their commitment. I already had a meeting with NDMC as the telcos complained that their towers were shut down. We are coming up with new designs of towers which can be multi-functional. Also, Trai has increased the penalty for call drops. We also appeal to state governments and municipalities, as mobile phone is a necessity.