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Bangalore , Oct. 9

A FORMER top official of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) has criticised the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for trying to usher in unified licensing regime without seeking Parliamentary approval.

The former VSNL Chairman and Managing Director, Mr B.K. Syngal, in a letter to the TRAI Chairman, Mr Pradeep Baijal, said that the National Telecom Policy, 1999, approved by Parliament, does not mention unified licence. Hence, any plan to change the policy should have the approval of Parliament.

He said the proposal of TRAI under consultation paper regarding licence could not be termed unified licence, as it was merely a hybrid licence. "A licence to combine, wireless and wireline access only; clearly a hybrid licence, with a couple of companies/operators in mind; and to provide them legitimacy to provide an illegitimate service, as has been recognised by TDSAT judgment in August and September, 2003."

Raising the issue of security regarding the use of CDMA technology, Mr Syngal said the use of CDMA would compromise the security of the country, as it is extremely difficult to monitor conversations from phones using CDMA technology.

He said a perpetual royalty would have to be paid for every handset sold in India to Qualcomm, the owners of the CDMA patent. Qualcomm currently earns a royalty of around 5 per cent of the wholesale price of each cell phone sold that relies on CDMA technology.

Mr Syngal said the regulator should function within the ambit of National Telecom Policy, 1999. Hence, to carry out any changes to the policy, it should have the approval of Parliament. The same holds true of unified licensing. "The recent Supreme Court decision in the case of HPCL and BPCL disinvestments proves this point clearly," he said.

He said a unified licence as per the classical definition, should include all services like broadcasting, broadcasting distribution, data transmission and speech under once licence called `convergence', under the Bill currently under discussion in Parliament. "Any attempt to circumvent or pre-empt such Parliamentary privilege would be considered inappropriate," he said.

He said a true unified licence would have to combine all the services included in the 1999 policy. This has been envisaged under the Convergence Bill along with the recognition that the regulatory resources required, including regulator, will have to be different from the current one. "It clearly recognises the need to replace all telecom legislation with a new one," he said.

Even though a de facto unified licence is currently available within National Telecom Policy, 1999 as per clause 3.0, it allows a service provider to acquire a bouquet of licences by paying appropriate licence fee as per the procedure laid down under the statute, Section 11(i)(a) to provide a service or set of services to permit unlimited number of players, which is similar to the result contemplated under a unified licence. But the constraining factor here was the spectrum availability and the statutory requirement to prove that more than four operators are required and will compete fairly.

Because of these constraints, the additional cellular licences were to be awarded after studying their need and time. "Unfortunately, unified licence or no unified licence, the statutory prerequisite of answering need and timing and availability of spectrum shall not be resolved by the present exercise undertaken by TRAI," Mr Syngal said.

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