Trai without a chairman, satcom spectrum allocation to be affected

Industry issues such as the regulation of over-the-top communication services (OTT) and allotment of satellite spectrum are unlikely to be resolved anytime soon as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), which has to submit its recommendations on the same to the government, is without a regular chairman for more than a month now, according to a report by The Financial Express (FE). The Centre has not appointed a successor after PD Vaghela's three-year term ended on September 30.

Sources were quoted as saying that it is unlikely that Trai will finalise its recommendations without a new chairman. The rollout of satellite-based communication services by Bharti Enterprises -backed OneWeb and Reliance Jio will be affected by the delay in appointing Vaghela's successor.

The issue could take time to resolve as Jio Infocomm and Vodafone Idea have backed an auction of satellite spectrum, whereas Bharti group has been pitching for an administrative route or without auctions.

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had stated that the Centre will not take a final decision on the allocation methodology till the Trai recommendations are received and analysed. There is also division among telecom operators and OTT players over the issue of bringing the latter under some form of regulation.

In October, as many as 129 startup founders, including Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Zerodha's Nithin Kamath, and PhonePe's Sameer Nigam urged Trai to not accept any demand by telcos on revenue sharing mechanism with OTT services as it would affect the net neutrality principles that were laid out by the Centre in 2016.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), whose members include Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, had written to the regulator stating that the proposal of a "fair share charge" will put the onus on large global entities, who are profiting from India's, but not contributing to its economy or infrastructure development.