Free spectrum in villages likely, says Trai

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is exploring the possibility of either drastically reducing the spectrum charges in rural areas or completely removing it, to push the growth of telecommunication services.

"Spectrum availability at reasonable price or at the lowest possible price was one of the key objectives...with 1 billion population and only 8 per cent teledensity, there is a big opportunity to leapfrog for introduction of all new technologies so as to make the telecom services available to rural areas at affordable prices," Trai said in a consultation paper released yesterday.

The authority said to achieve a higher teledensity in a country like India with 70 per cent of the population living in the rural areas, it was necessary for telecom services to penetrate into rural areas.

It opined that a relook at the entire issue of rural communications was needed to make a speedy headway.

The authority showed its concern over the widening gap between penetration of telephony in rural areas (1.7%) and urban areas (19.7%).

"There has been a phenomenal spurt in the growth of teledensity in the country, with the evolution of new wireless technologies, but the gap between the urban and the rural teledensity has been increasing," the Trai said.

It also noted that the rollout obligations, which are a part of licensing conditions, had not also managed to get telecom infrastructure in rural areas.

The regulator advocated that the entry barrier and regulatory costs for small players should be removed so that they can offer telecom services in rural areas at affordable prices.

The regulator reiterated the concept of "niche operators", as specified in the draft recommendations on unified licensing recommendations.

In its recommendations, the Trai had allowed entry of small operators to provide fixed telephony, including multimedia services in rural areas, without paying any licence fee.

The Trai emphasised that more coverage of wireless services in rural areas and small towns was the key for future growth of the telecom sector. It said the deployment of more cost-effective technologies, including broadband over wi-max, cordect, power line, should be encouraged.

It also added that local content development would help in generating more and more rural employment.

The regulator has invited comments of stakeholders by November 30.