Telecom operators cry foul over curb on video calls

Having spent a fortune on third-generation (3G) spectrum auction earlier this year, telecom operators have expressed serious concern over a government diktat on shutting down video calls.

If state-owned telcos BSNL and MTNL could offer video calls over the 3G platform for more than a year now, why is the government stopping private telcos from doing so, the Association of Unified Service Providers of India (Auspi) has asked the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

In a letter to communications minister Kapil Sibal, Auspi secretary general S C Khanna has stated that the operators launched their 3G services including video, “based on a successful demo and that too up to the security agencies’ satisfaction.”

Even then, the DoT has now asked operators to immediately stop their video based 3G services, citing security concerns raised by the home ministry due to absence of real time interception facility.

Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications are the only two private telecom operators to have launched their 3G services so far. Bharti Airtel is expected to roll out the service any day now, and Vodafone early next year.

Earlier this year, 3G and BWA (broadband wireless access) spectrum auction fetched the national exchequer more than Rs 1 lakh crore of revenue as against an expectation of just Rs 35,000 crore.

“The direction by DoT for stopping the video based 3G service is depriving the customers of our members of the next generation telecom services while the same services are available from BSNL and MTNL. We are unable to understand the decision as regards private 3G operators when BSNL and MTNL have been allowed for more than a year now,” the Auspi letter has argued.

According to Auspi, BSNL and MTNL do not have better LIM (lawful interception monitoring) capability than its members (Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices). “This is seriously distorting further the level playing field. This is also resulting in the huge investment made by operators in the 3G spectrum and the network becoming unproductive which is a colossal waste of precious national resources,” the letter has added.

The lawful interception monitoring system put up by the operators is as per global standards and the “current standards do not have a provision for real/near real time video call content to be available,” Auspi has told the government.

It has added that “the decoding of intercepted video telephony call is possible only at the end of the call”.

Auspi, which represents CDMA (code division multiple access) telcos, has requested DOT to allow its member operators to commission the 3G video calls with the currently available capability of providing the content immediately at the end of the call.