Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan today advised the industry not to "resist" opening up certain new bands of spectrum or creating space for new set of disruptors, so long as principles of fairness and transparency are protected in consumer interest.
The comments come at a time when industry body COAI has asked the government not to allow internet services by unlicensed operators or any 'de-licensing' of the V-band spectrum, saying the twin measures can jeopardise massive investments made by telecom firms and hurt their financial viability.
"I want to mention here that often there is a tendency on part of incumbents to have a lot of apprehensions about their investments. While that is certainly a legitimate concern and government will take that into account, I think we need to look at the larger picture," Sundararajan said.
She was speaking at a seminar titled Empowering India Digitally enhancing broadband quality and enabling consumer choice', organised by CUTS International.
Noting that 600-700 million Indians still do not have broadband access, Sundararajan listed out a slew of proposals and measures around broadband mission, national fibre authority, public data office aggregators, and E and V bands.
"...if in the interest of the larger picture, we have to ensure that we open up certain new bands, create spaces for new category of disruptors to come in...I think that is something none of us should resist," Sundararajan said.
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In the same breath, she emphasised that public policies cannot be "unfair".
"Public policies cannot be unfair but so long as fairness and transparency are protected, I think public policy and citizens must come first," she said.
The method of allotment of spectrum in E and V bands is being hotly-debated in the telecom industry as also within the government. Views are divided on whether the spectrum in these bands should be auctioned or given administratively at a fixed rate as suggested by telecom regulator Trai.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has also recommended that a new set of players, to be called PDOA, be allowed to resell internet services through yesteryears' PCOs-like set-ups that will be called Public Data Offices.
Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) rues that data-based networks built by unlicensed entities using delicensed spectrum are "perfect substitutes" for services provided by licensed telecom operators, who have infused over Rs 3.5 lakh crore in spectrum auctions and Rs 10 lakh crore in setting up massive telecom networks, while also contributing licence fee and spectrum usage charges.
Sundararajan today further said the government and the industry cannot be engaged in an "extractive relationship".
"We cannot have an extractive relationship either way...either from government extracting surpluses out of the sector or the sector providers extracting from the consumer. I think both the relationships have to be absolutely balanced," she said.
She said steps have been taken in recent times to ensure improvement in consumer experience in telecom, and noted that the competition and policies have resulted in tariffs crashing by nearly 93 per cent over the last few years.
"...enabling tariffs to be brought down by a whopping 93 per cent...there is no comparative sector in India over the last 70 years where the tariffs have been brought down by a whopping 93 per cent, and that benefits we are seeing accruing to the customer. And that is why the data revolution has picked up in this manner," she said.