The association representation is opposed to the provisions of Clause 17 of the broadcast bill deals with the grant of licences for local delivery services
Basic telecom operators have criticized the proposed government move to grant cable TV operators two licences for providing local delivery service in each telecom circle as this will result in a duplication of investment and infrastructure.
In a six page memorandum to the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) looking into the broadcast bill, submitted on Monday, the Association of Basic Telecom Operators has contended that the proposal to grant two licences to cable operators undermines the philosophy of basic operators telecom licence, which encourages basic operators to build and operate networks for multimedia services.
According to JPC sources, the association representation disputes the provisions of Clause 17 in the broadcast bill. Clause 17 deals with the grant of licences for local delivery services.
Basic operators have also said that instead of the proposed Broadcast Authority of India regulating the content of hardware in a network, the policing should be done by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The association comprises the Essar group, Bharti Telnet, the Reliance group and Hughes-Ispat with the RPG group being an associate member.
The association said its members cannot be encouraged to develop networks at a huge cost when cable operators will also be doing so later. Most basic operators are making huge investments in networks which will be able to carry, when permitted, audio, image, data and text.
Basic operators have also hinted that not many cable operators have the resources to develop a state-of-the-art network.
A cable operator would have to invest about Rs 33 crore in headend equipment and fibre optic cables for a five-city network apart from an outside plant cost of about Rs 175 crore. An outside plant allows multimedia access to subscribers through digital equipment, the association memo has pointed out, JPC sources said.
The memo adds: In contrast, the cost of an outside plant would be reduced to about $70 per home-path for a basic service provider. In addition, the basic service provider will not incur any additional cost for inter-city fibre (infrastructure).
Basic operators have also suggested that the proposal to give the same rights to cable operators, as given to telegraph operators under the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885, will lead to duplication of networks hinting that how can the government sell the same facility twice all over to cable operators.
The telecom operators move comes in the wake of the revelation that most JPC members favour small and medium-sized cable TV operators forming consortiums to compete with big cable operators like Zee, Siti Cable and In Cablenet. JPC member, Nitish Bharadwaj of BJP, has suggested that a cable licencee must be able to install equipment for providing value-added services like telephony services.
