A flawed attempt to unite

A unified telecom licence needs to include all "� present day and future "� services and technologies to make it future proof

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has in the past weeks held public discussions on its consultation paper on a unified licence to cover basic and cellular telecom services.

The sessions were, expectedly, noisy with representatives "� openly and in stealth mode "� of basic and cellular service companies trying to shout down one another.

The cellular services lobby is fighting tooth and nail the concept of a single, omnibus licence. It sees this as yet another attempt by the Reliance-Tata duo to muscle into the mobile phone business.

"They first tried to come in as WLL (mobile). Then there was talk of them becoming the fifth cellular provider. And, now after the TDSAT (Telecom Disputes and Settlement Appellate Tribunal) verdict, the unified licence is the last ploy," a representative of the industry told me.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) is following a clever cover-your-behind strategy by not accepting the unified licence consulting paper at all, giving it ample leeway later to fight the case in courts.

It has rightly zeroed in on a glaring loophole in the paper "� it talks of a single licence only for cellular and basic telecom services "� and rejected the concept and application of a unified licence in its current form.

"COAI has mentioned that in India, the first steps towards convergent licensing were initiated in the year 2000 with the setting up of a [ministerial] sub-group on convergence. Convergence in this context encompasses all communication services "� telecom, information technology as well as broadcasting. COAI has represented that the present consultation exercise, which has been initiated by the Authority, seeks to pre-empt a well-considered Parliamentary process and is outside the Authority's jurisdiction," T V Ramachandran, director-general of COAI wrote to TRAI in a reaction to the consultation paper.

I have in the past criticised the attempts of cellular service companies to block code division multiple access (CDMA)-based wireless in local loop services, but Ramachandran is not wrong in this instance.

TRAI is taking a short-sighted view by talking about a unified licence just for basic and cellular telecoms services.

By doing so, it is setting up itself "� and millions of telecom consumers today and in future "� for even more trouble and fire-fighting in the years ahead.

If the objective of a unified licence is to address technology "� and the service-neutrality of telecoms "� and overlapping areas with information technology, broadcasting and the Internet, it needs to have a more broad-based scope.

It should ideally cover every telecom service in play today: cellular, basic, radio trunking, paging, national and international long distance calling, internet access and data offerings.

And "� this is critical "� it needs to make it clear that the unified licence (and, in turn, existing and potential licencees) will openly welcome the adoption of new and upcoming services if there is a market demand for them, unless there are genuine reasons not to do so like national security.

This way, TRAI can ensure that it lays the foundations of a policy that is future proof.

Let the companies in the industry today or those entering tomorrow take a call whether their offerings "� cellular, WLL, basic, Internet, data, radio "� will have enough demand to justify investments.

The risk is entirely theirs and they could well be subject to technology disruptions of the kind Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices have brought into the country today.

In fact, I believe another round of disruptive technologies will hit Indian "� and other Asian "� shores inside the next three years in the form of voice over WiFi or WiMax technologies (see TechTalk, February 26 and March 12 this year) and hit the business plans of cellular and WLL operators.

How will TRAI and telecom policy-makers classify such an offering: voice or mobile data?

A well-heeled internet service provider could roll out a few thousand WiFi "� a high speed wireless data offering "� 'hotspots' in the country and sell PDAs or 'softphones' with voice functionality at a fraction of the cost of a cellular or even WLL call.

This substitutable voice service could spark off fresh demand as also huge churn, hurting those who have invested millions in legacy cellular and WLL networks.

The road ahead, then, is clear: alter the current form of TRAI's unified licence to include all existing telecom and associated services and technologies and make it open-ended on the adoption of variants or new offerings.

Make sure it is in sync with the new Convergence Bill being readied. What matters fundamentally is offering voice and data on a fixed or mobile platform and not the method by which it is delivered.

There will, of course, be the difficult issues of licence fee neutrality and spectrum allocation, but these can be worked at.

In its current form, the TRAI consultation paper on a unified licence regime looks tailormade for the likes of Reliance, the Tatas and others who might want to make an easy entry into WLL mobile services.

It is not fair on cellular service companies "� or customers "� and needs to be rectified immediately.

Josey Puliyenthuruthel works at content company perZuade. His views are personal and may not be endorsed by his employer, the company's investors, customers or vendors. Comments may be sent to josey@perzuade.com