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WIRELESS IN LOCAL loop phone services must work only within the local area. That is what the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal had ruled two months ago. And that is what the Government on Sunday promised it would ensure, although the Union Communications Minister, Mr Arun Shourie, would not still commit himself as to when and how. The point left unclear was whether there would be any material change in the way the WLL service providers operate. Reliance Infocomm, which has a fixed service licence, has more than four million customers using telephone handsets with "limited mobility". Benefiting from an ingenious method of registration in multiple locations and seamless forwarding of calls, these customers have thus far enjoyed virtually all the facilities of a full-fledged national mobile service. The question is whether after the appellate court ruling they would have to make do without some of these exotic facilities.

The answer depends on whether the Government deems multiple registration and forwarding of calls as unacceptable features of a fixed services licence that Reliance Infocomm uses. What the TDSAT ruling made abundantly clear was that a distinction must be maintained between the fixed and mobile services. Yet, the Telecom Engineering Centre has now inspected the switches of Reliance Infocomm at the instance of the Department of Telecom, and reported that the company "appeared to follow the licensing conditions". So, while there has been a deafening chorus from the cellular operators urging the Government to stop the violations, and a flurry of activity within the various arms of the government in response, none of the operators has been booked for any violations. It is time the Government confirmed whether the fixed service providers are playing by the rules.

At least the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India does believe that the "motive" and "spirit" of the licence conditions have been by-passed. The regulator has advised the Government to amend the licence to prevent WLL phone-users from either using call forwarding or making multiple registrations, the two devices that together confer the powers of roaming on the ordinary local phone. Whether such restriction would go legally unchallenged is another point, but the Government has seemed reluctant to get into battle with the fixed service providers, preferring to pursue with greater vigour the idea of a unified licence that would present its owners the privilege of offering either mobile and fixed services to their subscribers. There is definitely merit in the new path, simply because it features no hurdles to the march of technology, and lets operators employ whichever forms preferred by customers. Yet, the process of migrating all service providers to the new licence could throw up new issues for dispute, not the least of which would be the licence fee structure. How much more ought the fixed service providers to pay to secure a status on a par with the cellular mobile service providers? This is the challenge the Government must resolve sooner or later.

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