Basic, cellular bodies may merge

A move is afoot among the country's leading telecom operators to look into the possibility of unification of the country's two leading telecom associations - the Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) and the Association of Basic Telecom Operators (ABTO).

Speaking to Business Standard S C Khanna, secretary general of the Association of Basic Telecom Operators said: "There is a thinking among our members that with a unified licensing regime the everyone's interests will be common."

ABTO will have a meeting on Thursday, in which this issue is expected to come up for discussions.

The idea of unification has also found positive response from GSM cellular operators. Dilip Modi, the newly-elected chairman of COAI pointed out, "Why have two associations? These are the issues that the industry should sit together and decide. There are many such issues common to the entire sector."

He, however, added it was just a thought at the moment and no formal discussions had started on this matter.

Even Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Enterprises, recently said he felt that the two associations, of which he was a founding member, have lost their relevance in the light of the Government's decision to go for an unified licensing regime.

Many of the members in the two associations are common, like Bharti and the Tatas, who operate basic as well as mobile services across the country.

The government recently worked out a migration package for basic service operators offering WLL limited mobility to offer fully mobile services as the first part of a process of moving towards an unified license.

The TRAI is preparing the details of putting together a unified licensing regime, which could also include international long distance as well as national long distance services.

The idea of one unified association for the telecom industry was mooted way back in October 2001 by the working group of the department of telecommunications, which was set up to provide inputs to the Planning Commission on the 10th Five Year Plan.

The working group, which had members from the two associations, had recommended the need for a unified telecom association.

But analysts say a merger of the two associations is not as easy as it seems. COAI has various court cases against ABTO and has publicly questioned the legality of allowing WLL limited mobile services being allowed to become fully mobile.

Any merger will have to wait till the cases are resolved. COAI sources, however, said such a move might take till the end of this financial year to be resolved -- by that time the decisions on the various court cases will have come.