The Hindu Business Line : Govt to limit WLL services to local call area

The Finance Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, flanked by (from left) the Minister for Disinvestment, IT and Communications, Mr Arun Shourie, the Minister for External Affairs, Mr Yashwant Sinha, the Minister for Defence, Mr Goerge Fernandes, the Minister for Commerce and Industry, Mr Arun Jaitley, and the Minister for I&B, Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad, at the Group of Ministers meeting on telecom in the Capital on Sunday. - Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , Oct. 12

THE Government will limit Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) operators to one Short Distance Calling Area (SDCA) as per the ruling of the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT). The decision was taken at the meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Telecom here today.

"The GoM has decided that the Government will limit WLL operators to one SDCA. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will examine issues relating to entry fees for WLL operators," the Union Communications and Disinvestment Minister, Mr Arun Shourie, told reporters after the meeting this evening.

Mr Shourie, however, refused to say how the decision would affect the Code Digit Multiple Access (CDMA)-based WLL operators like Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices Ltd.

He also refused to give any timeframe for the implementation of the TDSAT judgment, which had said that a distinction has to be maintained between CDMA-WLL and the regular cellular services using the Global Standards for Mobile (GSM) technology.

On unified licensing, the GoM decided to wait for the recommendations of the TRAI, which are expected to be received in the next couple of weeks.

"We hope to receive TRAI's recommendations before the next meeting of the GoM, scheduled on (October) 30th," Mr Shourie said, adding that the regulator was working on the terms and conditions and the steps in the transition to unified licensing.

The GoM was informed by the Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, that the first tranche of excess spectrum with the Armed Forces would be released within a month.

Spectrum being a scarce resource, the GoM had, in its last meeting, decided to provide funds to the Armed Forces to upgrade their equipment and release surplus frequencies for use by other sectors.

"We made great progress on the issue of releasing spectrum from the Defence forces. The Defence Ministry has taken up the initiative and we hope to get some spectrum released within a month," Mr Shourie said.

The Minister said that while no operator was suffering from lack of spectrum, the Government was aware that the scarce resource had to be utilised optimally.

TRAI has been asked to prepare a report on spectrum usage in India and compare it with other countries.

"TRAI will go into the issue of spectrum usage efficiency. The Authority will suggest changes to the fees structure and also work out a scheme of incentives and disincentives for judicious use of spectrum," Mr Shourie said.

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