Trai policy calls delayed as telcos miss deadlines

Consultation and dialogue on several critical issues in the telecom sector have been delayed this year as the industry failed to keep to the deadline for giving inputs to the regulator.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has allowed as many as 11 extensions to the industry since January for its comments and counter-comments on issues ranging from encouraging green telecom to checking unwanted marketing calls, putting in place a broadband policy to having a 4G plan, and promoting equipment manufacturing to efficient utilisation of numbering resources.

Telecom service providers have been busy with more immediate matters concerning them, said an industry source. Working out the modalities for auction of spectrum for 3G (third generation) telecom services and wireless broadband, worrying about spectrum vacation by the Defence Forces, lobbying with the government over restrictions on import of equipment (mainly from China) and the Trai recommendations linking 2G pricing to 3G were some of the issues that kept telcos occupied in the first half of 2010.

In the process, some of the priority items of the UPA government have suffered — the national broadband plan for one.

Earlier this month, Trai extended the deadline for receiving comments from the industry on the broadband plan from July 7 to July 20, and for counter-comments from July 15 to July 27. The inputs are crucial for Trai to formulate its recommendations, based on which the government could come up with a fresh broadband policy.

The government had announced a broadband policy in 2004, which never took off.

Trai came out with its consultation paper on the national
broadband plan only last month, within weeks of its chairman JS Sarma meeting the chief of the US Federal Communications Commission Julius Genachowski in New Delhi. The two regulators initiated a dialogue on the broadband roadmap in that meeting.

The US launched its broadband policy recently.

Broadband penetration in India remains low despite there being as many as 104 broadband service providers. Going by Trai data, the net broadband addition per month is just 1-2 lakh in contrast with around 180 lakh mobile connections. Broadband penetration is just 0.74% compared with teledensity of around 53%.

Another critical issue that needs immediate attention is checking pesky telemarketing calls. Despite the regulator coming out with a Do-Not-Call registry, unsolicited commercial communication continues.

While many stakeholders have submitted their inputs on the consultation paper to review unsolicited commercial communication, others had sought an extension from Trai.
The industry is now required to give all its inputs on the issue by July 30.