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Put four public mobile radio trunking services (PMRTS) providers in one room.
They are sure to whine about one thing–sheer neglect from the government. For
an industry that has been in business for more than seven years now, the growth
path has been nothing to write home about. So it is for nothing that the radio
trunking operators in the country have taken up cudgels against the new
guidelines issues by the government for migration of existing operators to
digital technologies. The guidelines issued in November last year are yet to be
translated into policy and contains lacunae.
The bone of contention is the government’s diktat that the license fee for
commercial PMRTS system shall be 5 percent of the adjusted gross revenue from
the service. The definition of AGR is the same as in respect of other services
like basic and cellular. But the problem with radio trunking services is that
the handsets are not available in the general market and customers have to
procure it from the service provider. Handsets, which cost anywhere between Rs
14,000 and Rs 24,000, are normally provided by the service providers who
subsidize the prices. The industry demands that the AGR should exclude the
handset sales. Another gray area pertains to PSTN connectivity. The guidelines
decree that PSTN connectivity shall be given as one PSTN line for 5 RF channels
(of 25 kHz each) to start with for analog systems. Operators lament that there
is no clear roadmap laid out for PSTN connectivity in the guidelines.
But the guidelines are not totally devoid of anything that the industry has
been clamoring for long. There is no doubt that the PSTN connectivity will help
speed up the process of consolidation, which allow PMRTS operators to have
inter-site connectivity as well as interconnection with networks of other
service providers. The government has also proposed to allow transfer of
licences by operators to a third party or enter into agreement for sub-licence,
which will help the cause of consolidation.
Is this what the doctor ordered for the sick PMRTS industry? Rajen Kaul, CEO,
Arya Communications, says, "Globally, the radio trunking industry
constitutes around one percent of the total cellular population, which is not
the case in India. The government should mandate bodies like municipalities and
electricity boards to share the services."
Though the guidelines state that existing operators shall be allowed to
migrate to digital technology at their option, many service providers are still
weighing the pros and cons. Many of them feel that the current subscriber base
is too small for digital MRTS services to be commercially viable. For this to be
financially feasible, an operator should be able to have enough subscribers for
minimum of 25 to 20 channels in each licenced area. "The existing
subscribers on the analog systems will necessarily have to procure new digital
radios to avail service. Subscribers may not be willing to continue on the MRTS
service incurring additional costs, while the price tariffs of competing
technologies like GSM, WLL continue to come down," feels Vinayak Murthy,
deputy general manager, India Satcom.
The only viable solution to this dilemma is to allow existing operators to
continue offering MRTS services in analog with existing equipment and licences
and also be permitted to offer digital trunking services to new customers and to
existing customers willing to migrate to digital radio sets. No doubt, this
would be the much needed shot in the arm for an industry that has been relegated
to the sidelines while other technologies like GSM, WLL hog the limelight.