TRAI report on licensing shortly

By Our Staff Reporter

CALCUTTA,JULY 4. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India will submit its recommendations on licensing issues relating to fixed basic service providers (FSPs) within six weeks. It is now organising open houses in different cities to collect public responses on key issues. The last open house will be held in Delhi on July 7.

Talking to newspersons after the open house here today, the TRAI chairman, Mr. M. S. Verma, said the idea of offering high revenue generating areas along with some unprofitable circles to attract investments in the latter had been stonewalled by the investing community. ``It is not a good idea'', he added.

Similarly, the issue of installing village public telephones (VPTs) through private operators had reached a dead end. ``The progress of private operators against their committed target is little due to techno-economic constraints''. The TRAI had put forward the idea of universal service obligation (USO) but this met with little response from the participants.

The projections of the New Telecom Policy, 1999 to enhance the tele-density from 2.5 per cent to 15 per cent by 2010 came in for criticism mostly from senior DoT officials representing Calcutta Telephones and West Bengal Telecom. The opposition was clearly on the issue of economic viability of extension of services.

According to Calcutta Telephones, as against a capital investment of Rs. 30,000 per line and a maintenance cost Rs. 3,300 annually, the department earns barely Rs. 2,400 (only rental) per annum from 70 per cent of its subscribers. ``Less than 20 per cent of our subscribers pay a monthly bill of over Rs. 1,000.''

Mr. S. K. Chakravorty, chief general manager of West Bengal Telecom, wanted the entry of private FSPs in direct exchange lines to be restricted to a handful as it may lead to chaos in laying cables and wastage of national resources. The entry in wireless mode should be free, he said. While agreeing on the cost effectiveness of the wireless mode, the TRAI panel raised its doubts in the bandwidth issue. ``The frequency to be used by this mode is already in use by many others''.

Issues relating to voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) in enhancing tele-density were not included in the current round of discussions as it is yet to be allowed in the country. Mr. Verma felt that ``the exclusion would not affect the viability of the present exercise.''

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