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Monday, Dec 11, 2006
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Telecommunications Industry & Economy - Rural Development Info-Tech - Regulatory Bodies & Rulings TRAI may widen scope of rural mobile project Thomas K Thomas
Service providers may be encouraged to set up towers and share the same with at least two more operators. This will increase competition in rural and uncovered areas, resulting in faster rollout of services at affordable costs.
New Delhi , Dec 10 In a bid to maintain the level playing field, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has proposed to broaden the scope of the ongoing rural mobile services project - being undertaken by the Government under the Universal Services Obligation (USO) Fund - by offering incentives to even those companies who lose out in the competitive bid, but set up cellular infrastructure in rural areas. The TRAI has proposed to give a lower subsidy to such companies compared to those who win the tender for setting up mobile infrastructure in 2.5 lakh remote villages. The telecom regulator has also said that financial support may be extended to operators who share their infrastructure with other operators in the urban areas as well to enable faster rollouts and cheaper tariffs. The USO Fund Administrator has finalised a tender to provide subsidy support for passive infrastructure in rural areas through competitive bidding. However, it envisages a maximum of three mobile operators for sharing the infrastructure. TRAI officials said that since there are more than three service providers in all circles, the question of level playing field may be raised as some providers will be able to share the towers set-up with USO support for rollout of their services in rural areas, while others will be deprived of such support. "In order to overcome the limitations, service providers may be encouraged to come forward to set up towers and share the same with at least two more operators," said a TRAI official. "Financial incentives could be evolved to promote such an effort to encourage all service providers to join the race." TRAI officials said that the incentive scheme is likely to encourage the role of more service providers and will increase competition in rural and uncovered areas, resulting in faster rollout of services at affordable costs. They also said that sharing of infrastructure is equally critical to urban areas in view of explosive growth trend of mobile subscribers, limited availability of spectrum, deteriorating skyline and reluctance of mobile operators towards adoption of the concept. "It is necessary to offer an innovative scheme for urban areas to encourage infrastructure sharing," said a TRAI official. "One way could be to permit certain percentage reduction in licence or spectrum fee for those operators who willingly come forward based on number of the towers shared."
Related Stories: More Stories on : Telecommunications | Rural Development | Regulatory Bodies & Rulings
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