Recent press reports indicate a soft ening of the Government’s attitude to
the demand by cellular operators for compensation in a new unified access
regime. The finance ministry is now said to be considering an amount of Rs 968
crore as relief to the cellular players. It is unlikely to bring much cheer for
the industry, which has clamoring for a much higher compensation though it
proves that persistent lobbying can yield some concessions. The Government had
earlier maintained that the cellular industry has been given adequate
concessions in 1999 at the time of migration to bail them out over the license
fee default. It is the taxpayer who will be asked to pay ultimately in all cases
of largesse on the part of the Government when it chooses to appease or accept
unjustified subsidies or compensation. The cellular operators have had a good
time for long when call charges were between Rs 16-18 per call for many years.
It is on account of deregulation and competition in the telecom market that the
consumers have, for the first time, benefited from the competition as prices
have come down to around Re 1 per call now. The price reduction has spurred
unprecedented growth of mobile subscribers and the current revenues from the
telecom sector as a whole are projected to reach a level of Rs 50,000 crore in
FY 2003 and is expected to go up to Rs 100,000 crore in the next two to three
years. With the kind of exponential growth being predicted by industry expert,
where is the need or justification for the compensation being asked for by the
cellular industry?
Conceding to any such demand will mean burdening the taxpayers and even rob
customers who have just started to taste the benefits of competition in the
wireless market. Given its current fiscal deficit, it is curious that government
should entertain such demands from the cellular operators. The public, equally,
has a right to voice its opposition to any concession given to industry in a
free market conditions. Nowhere in the world will such a claim by the industry
be allowed. The telecom industry is poised for exponential growth on account of
the recent trends and business confidence needs to be encouraged at this time by
a slew of other measures such as, increasing the present FDI limit of 49
percent.
Recent regulatory measures taken by the TRAI has led to two important
developments. One is the phenomenal growth in telephony, both in the wireless
and the fixed line segments. This has been possible by stimulating competition
in the wireless telephony by creating appropriate environment for both WLL and
mobile service providers. The light handed approach adopted by the regulator in
respect of tariffs has led to a sharp price reduction and entry cost for the new
subscribers. This has resulted in the huge growth witnessed in the last seven
months of the current year 2003. TRAI figures show that the new subscribers
added in the last seven months (more than 12 million) is almost equal to the
total number of 12 million achieved in the last seven years. The addition of
nearly one million each month underscores the impact created by the competition.
As result, it now seems very likely that we will achieve a tele-density figure
of 7 by December 2003, which had been targeted for FY 2005. The fundamentals for
this growth have to be maintained by the regulator if we have to reach 100
million by FY 2005 as projected by TRAI.
To create conditions for this growth, TRAI has proposed a unified license
regime similar to what has been happening in many developed and developing
countries. The current trend worldwide is to adopt the telecom framework to
technological and market changes in a convergent environment. Customers will
thereby have greater choice of service providers and get better voice and data
quality from operators. TRAI’s proposals are a step forward in this regard.
However, the consultation paper seems to have ignored some important
prerequisites for the environment necessary for a unified license regime being
proposed. The paper does not, for instance, clarify the need to have a fair and
non-discriminatory access and interconnection regime to be in force. There are
several difficulties being faced in the present regulations for access and
interconnection by the new/private operators. These issues are known to the
regulator and need no reiteration. However, what is important is that the
regulator has to move away from the traditional concept of protection of the
incumbent to a more proactive role to stimulate market forces to interplay. This
will require strict adherence to the three basic regulatory principles or
parameters of regulatory approach in relation to the dominant player and the
incumbent utility. These are also referred to as three forbidding parameters
- no arbitrary surcharge because of dominant position
- no discount which prejudices the competitive opportunity of the other
companies - not to give advantage to individual company or users vis-a-vis others.
It is expected that these guiding principles for forbearance
will be implemented effectively in the developing situation in the telecom
market. This has assumed importance in the context of the connectivity issues
that have arisen from the discriminatory and arbitrary actions of the incumbent
player since the introduction of the new IUC regime by the TRAI. The mechanism
for the resolution of the issues is necessary along with the proposed move
towards unified licensing/authorization regime under consideration.
In order to give confidence for new players as well to the
new entrants for the services that would be feasible under the proposed regime
there is need to have special provisions for service providers with significant
market power. The definition of the dominant or significant market power should
be prescribed by the regulator or what is internationally acceptable. This will
help in putting into force these provisions either by a license condition or a
clearly defined ex-ante regulatory criteria. We have been seeing that regulatory
executive power has been challenged before the TDSAT in such areas. To obviate
the tendency of the incumbent to rush to the TDSAT against any orders or
directions for interconnection of the regulator, as has been the experience so
far in the sector some form of special provisions for the interconnection
obligations on the incumbent player would be desirable.
From the consultation paper, it appears that the TRAI intends
to put together in a single license for the network infrastructure in the
category of carrier-service provider and network of existing service providers
as facility-based operators (FBOs).
The type of services that would be offered would in the
nature of basic and long distance services, bandwidth and interconnection and
access. The scheme would cover the features of the two types of licenses–carrier
and carriage. The TRAI has adopted the classification of the unified-licensing
framework from the Singapore model.
There is, however, some change in the services selected in
the proposed unified-licensing regime from the range of telecom services
provided over the licensees’ facilities. In the proposed regime there is no
clarity regarding the justification to keep network application services, such
as, satellite services, VoIP, Internet services and other public switched data
services.
There seems to be less justification to put such
telecommunications services outside the unified license framework. These
services ought to be included on the same principle of technological advances
and market changes in a convergent-communication environment. It may be noted
that this is the guiding principle for the proposed unified licensing framework
for combining basic, mobile. Long-distance voice telephony. By limiting the
unified license to only these categories, we are not taking full advantage of
the convergence and synergies that may be available across the licensees’
capabilities. The full benefits of convergence should be achieved from now on
instead of taking them up at a later time, which will only add to new problems
and avoidable costs. The access obligation for the incumbent operator should be
in line with the established international practice of mandating access to
incumbent’s local sub-loop near the customer’s premises than local exchange
such as in EU, Australia etc.
Once we accept the vitality of the Unified License regime to
extend and propel growth, the service area for all players in the Unified
License regime needs to be same. For the Unified Access Licensing regime, DoT
has already issued rollout obligations. If additional obligations are to be
added, it should leave some scope for discretion to the service provider for
rolling out networks based on market dynamics.
The consultation paper also provides for scope for migration
and exit. It is only fair that the choice to migrate to a new unified regime is
made available. However, some specific issues have to be addressed. In the
present consultation paper, the scope and the definition of markets and the
conditions for migrating have to be clarified by the regulator. The following
issues will have to taken into account.
-
Whether migration will lead to concentration/strategic
collaboration/alliances between telecom operators? -
Will it restrict, prevent or distort competition?
-
Will it impede the fulfillment of roll out obligation?
-
The effect on universal service provisions
If migration results in concentration and lead to operator
turnover that is above a threshold limit, then regulatory intervention becomes
necessary. In order to have a transparent regime, the conditions under which
migration will be permissible will have to be identified/stipulated.
In the revised consultation paper some of these issues need
elaboration by the regulator for effective consultative process. It is hoped
that in the revised consultation paper, TRAI would address these issues.
VS Ailawadi former
chairman, ERC-Haryana and regulatory affairs analyst.