CompTel Terms India’s Regulatory Regime Discriminatory

The Competitive Telecommunications Association (CompTel) in its submission to the office of United States Trade Representative (USTR) has warned that 14 key trading partners of US — Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland and Taiwan — are not honouring their market-opening obligations under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), Basic Telecommunications Agreement and Reference Paper, and related agreements. CompTel also placed four other countries — Belgium, Ireland, Sweden and Spain — on a "watch list" because of potential problems of which the USTR should be aware. Commenting on India, Comptel said that while India had accelerated the opening of its international long-distance market two years ahead of its WTO commitment of 2004, "exorbitant" licensing fees for international long-distance operators are a serious barrier for new entrants. The current fee is more than $5.21 million, and licensees also are required to post a performance bond of equal value and to pay an annual fee worth 15 percent of net revenues. Among the other barriers include requiring all new entrants to install an international gateway switch and establish a minimum of four regional POPs. CompTel has also termed India’s regulatory regime discriminatory and has observed that there are not sufficient rules to require structural and accounting separation of the incumbent’s multiple lines of business, and there are no safeguards to prevent anti-competitive pricing practices.