Govt to allow voice services on broadband wireless access spectrum

Companies may have to pay Rs 1,650 cr if they want to offer voice services using BWA spectrum

The government is likely to allow internet service providers (ISP) to offer voice services using the broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum that they had acquired through auction in 2010, under the new unified licence regime.

According to recommendations made by a Committee constituted by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), companies will have to pay an additional fee equal to the difference between the entry fee for the unified access service licence and the entry fee of the ISP licence, besides the fee for the migration to unified licence.

If Telecom Commission agrees with the recommendations of the DoT Committee, companies like Reliance Infotel, which had acquired the BWA spectrum and ISP licence in 2010, will have to pay Rs 1,650 crore if they want to offer voice services using BWA spectrum.

Under the present licence, companies like Reliance Infotel does not have the permit to offer voice service using the BWA spectrum.

In the new unified licence regime, operators will be permitted to offer all types of services following a cafeteria approach by taking licences for the services that want to offer. This licence is de-linked from spectrum.
In December, Reliance Infotel has received approval from DoT to test voice services using its BWA spectrum.

However, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) that lobbies for GSM operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, has opposed allowing ISP licensees to offer voice services using BWA spectrum under the new unified licence regime.

Reliance Infotel did not respond to e-mailed queries from Business Standard.

In a recent discussion, the DoT Committee has also said the unified licencing regime should have the cafeteria approach for the niche service operators including internet service provider (ISP), international long distance (ILD), national long distance (NLD), very small aperture terminal (VSAT), voice mail or audio text etc.

In this case, these companies will not have to abide by the minimum equity or networth requirement as recommended by the Telecom regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in the unified licence regime with all services included. The cafeteria approach of the unified licencing would allow smaller service providers an opportunity to operate.

All licencees who wish to expand the scope of their licence or service to include any additional service or service area will have to migrate to unified licence.