More discussions needed before finalising telecom policy: Operators
‘Proposal to give infrastructure status will provide much-needed relief to the sector'
New Delhi, Oct. 10:
Telecom operators have said that the draft telecom policy unveiled on Monday was good on intent but required more discussions before it is implemented.
“The draft NTP 2011 is expected to take the country into the next stage of inclusive growth. We understand that the Government will now initiate the consultative process across multiple stakeholders, including the telecom operators.
“Idea Cellular will actively participate in this consultation as the country formulates its new telecom policy. There are several areas that are included in the proposals and we will need to review each of them with our experts, before reverting to the policy maker, with our comments,” said Mr Rajat Mukarji, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Idea Cellular.
Shyam Sistema, which operates mobile services under the MTS brand, said the policy has to look at the interest of the CDMA operators. Mr Vsevolod Rozanov, President and CEO, MTS India, said, “We at MTS welcome the spirit of the new telecom policy. The strong focus to make affordable and reliable broadband available on demand by 2015 along with one nation, one licence regime is a welcome move. To make all this happen, we look forward to the formulation of supporting policies so that more spectrum can be released.”
“Equally significant would be the release of policy details specific to a range of issues, including delinking of spectrum and telecom licence, allowing of spectrum trading, pooling and sharing and also new M&A guidelines. One also needs to understand, how NTP 2011 seeks to look after the interest of the CDMA operators and their customers,” he added.
Bharti Airtel said that though the policy is in the right direction and signals the government's strong focus on future growth areas, final policy should provide level playing field and encourage more investments.
“The proposal to give infrastructure status to the telecom sector and rationalisation of taxes and levies will provide much-needed relief to the sector. This will help in further expansion of networks thus realising the Government's vision of providing connectivity and affordable telecom services to all. We look forward to constructive deliberations on the draft policy proposals and hope that the final policy will provide level playing field, encourage more investment in the sector - particularly in rural areas and for broadband and ensure the long-term sustainability and viability of the sector,” said a Bharti Airtel spokesperson.
The Association of Unified Service Providers of India (AUSPI), the industry body representing the CDMA operators, said that it supported move to abolish roaming charges, full mobile number portability.
“Emphasis on affordability of services is welcome step and AUSPI is confident that DoT will make available at affordable price optimum quantity of spectrum, rationalise levies to bring them down to those in other countries. AUSPI welcomes projects to create further capacities but urges that capacities already created in public and private sector be gainfully utilised first,” said Mr S.C. Khanna, Secretary General, AUSPI.
“Delinking of spectrum from licences — the cost of spectrum will go up which will, in turn, increase customer servicing costs. There appears to be no clarity on M&A guidelines which industry badly needs to rationalise and consolidate,” said Mr Hemant Joshi, Partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells.
Keywords: draft telecom policy 2011, 
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