The Hindu Business Line : Taking TRAI's call

After having initiated some bold policies for the booming telecom sector as Secretary, Department of Telecom, Nripendra Misra has now taken over as Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). eWorld caught up with Misra just after a month of his taking the new responsibility to know his vision for taking the world's fastest growing telecom market into the next phase of growth.

One of the issues that India is struggling with is bridging the digital divide. How do you propose to take the telecom revolution to the rural segment?

There are three tripods to bridge the rural-urban divide. Infrastructure sharing, financial assistance and some degree of corporate responsibility. Though these issues are in the domain of the government, I see that TRAI should play a supportive role. More needs to be done in this regard. For one, mobile needs to be included in Universal Services Obligation (USO).

On the financial side, we should be able to offer imaginative schemes. It should bridge the revenue deficit in terms of the operator's revenues for at least for 2-3 years. While doing so, the scheme should also incentivise operators. It should not be a blind support from USO fund.

On the technical side, one should make sure that infrastructure is not duplicated. Even if one is pioneering, it should be shared. We should incentivise infrastructure-sharing not just in rural areas but urban also. For example, one could look at giving clearances such as that of SACFA on a priority to those operators who are sharing infrastructure.

The second aspect of technical is upgrading technology. We have to experiment with Wi-Max in rural areas. I believe that spectrum will not be a constraint for Wi-Max. But our strategy should be to use latest technology. Then the operators have got to see that they move into rural areas with innovative schemes.

Isn't it a fact that the USO fund that's is being collected is not being pumped back into the sector fully?

The first thing that we need to understand is that USO is not lapsable. This fund cannot be diverted to anything else. It just happens that our policy makers in their wisdom decided against creating an arrangement whereby the money did not go to the national exchequer. This can be an issue and we can ask for more. But we can really ask for more if we show that we will not be able to honour the tender commitments unless money is released from the fund. Present data shows that all tender commitments can be honoured. I do admit that full amount has not been released but I would so like to clarify that it should not be seen as a bottleneck. But unless USO fund offers some imaginative and innovative schemes, rural telephones may not pick up.

What are the top areas that you would be looking at as TRAI Chairman?

It's too early for me to say. I am yet to interact with members as these positions are vacant today. But at the heart of the strategy there will be two items. First to achieve 250 million telephone subscribers by 2007 and 400-50 million by 2008-2009. When you have this, you obviously include the balance growth i.e. the rural-urban divide.

The second aspect is the quality of service. Strategies will be developed around this. It could be issues related to ombudsman, interconnection, points of interconnection, monitoring, network restructuring to some extent. The traditional way of looking at things in terms of LDCA, SDCA may have to be changed, IPTV, NGN, these are the other issues. I would not like to specifically point out at this point like this.

Do you think unbundling of the last mile local loop is required for higher Broadband growth?

Now there is almost a universal recognition that for broadband, copper is not the only solution. Even if all the copper were to be used we would reach only 5 million subscribers. So we have to look at wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi for propagating broadband services. By saying unbundling it des not resolve it. So let's not get into the controversy because it can take away the focus. Private operators have already taken up the challenge and are charting out their own roadmap without depending on BSNL's copper. But at the same time, I cannot disassociate myself from the earlier recommendations of TRAI.

There seems to be a disconnect between TRAI and the Communications Ministry on various issues, including unbundling where the Government is not in favour of it. Your thoughts.

I do not think TRAI and DoT share the same optimism on unbundling. At the same time I do not see a situation where all the recommendations of TRAI find unanimous acceptance by the Government. Wisdom does not lie in TRAI only. There are other factors that can add to the growth of broadband.

Everyone is touting IPTV to be the next big thing but is there need for regulatory or policy clarity before operators launch the service?

We have done a study on IPTV. There may be certain regulatory issues that need to be answered to ensure the growth of IPTV. There is, however, no stopping in IPTV. It is a reality. Be it telecom or be it the broadcasters. What we are looking at is to see what kind of essentials must be given to the system such that all hurdles are removed for introduction of IPTV so that the touchy issues are resolved. Most issues are commercial. It's easy to resolve technical issues. We will be getting into a dialogue with the broadcasters, multi system operators (MSOs).

Are you in favour of more stringent regulation for incumbent BSNL?

I would never be in favour of differential regulation for the incumbent. They are on a par with the private operators. The Government is responsible for the incumbent and it is also responsible for the overall growth of the telecom sector.

Do you think that more powers in terms of financial autonomy, more manpower and laws should be given to TRAI?

It is an evolutionary process. There have been orders by Courts that have enhanced the powers of the regulator. In future if we feel that some change has to be made in the Act, we will be approaching the Government, which will take the final view. Issues related to more manpower and financial independence is not of very much consequence.

tkt@thehindu.co.in

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