DoT asks telcos to give list of issues to new govt

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has asked operators to list out the priority areas, where policies are pending, for placing before the new government as a consensus agenda for the first 100 days.

"A new government is likely to be in place by the later half of May 2009. The government will have to take decisions on a number of matters which are still constraining growth of the telecom sector. I would like to know the issues which in your opinion, need to be addressed urgently," Telecom Secretary Siddhharth Behura said in a communication to telcos.

He said DoT would shortly hold a meeting with some of the key players to arrive at a common agenda for the first three months of the new government.

The secretary said though pro-active policies of the government have helped the sector achieve huge success in telecom, there are a number of key issues on which decisions have to be taken to further the progress in the sector.

The telecom industry earlier said it wants the new government to tackle the issue of multiple levies on the sector on priority basis.

"The government should make uniform licence fee of 6 per cent across all services to avoid arbitrage opportunities," said GSM operators association COAI Director General T V Ramachandran.

CDMA operators association AUSPI's Secretary General S C Khanna echoing the views of COAI on multiplicity of levies also sought reduction in taxes saying present rate of 30 per cent is globally the highest.

Ramachandran said the new minister should resolve the 2G spectrum issues immediately adding a committee has submitted recommendation which should be finalised without delay.

On the spectrum issue, Khanna said new GSM operators should be given 6.2 Mhz of spectrum instead of the existing 4.4 Mhz.

COAI's other priority was that the government should do enough to increase rural connectivity and as part of that it should restore the two per cent reduction in USO levy which has been rejected by the PMO due to some procedural glitch.

COAI wants the 3G spectrum auction to start as early as possible so that private operators start the service soon.

Analysts said now that the Congress-led UPA has returned to power with a clear mandate, the much-needed reforms in this sector should start with a new spectrum policy and listing of government-owned BSNL.

"The telecom sector needs a stable spectrum allocation policy. Be it linked with the subscriber base or through auctions, we want more spectrum and a stable regime,” Bharti Airtel CMD Sunil Bharti Mittal had earlier said.

The mobile subscriber base in the world's fastest-growing wireless market stands at 391.8 million as on March 2009, as per the the Telecom Regulatory Authority.