PMO unlikely to respond to COAI's plea for intervention

Govt advises industry to discuss issue with regulator, telecom dept

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which has sought a meeting with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on the issue of regulatory bias against incumbents, is unlikely to get an audience. 

Senior officials at the department of telecommunications (DoT) said the government has made it clear to the industry that it will have to learn to work with both the DoT and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), and the PMO will not intervene in matters that are the remit of the regulator.
 

On August 12, Telecom Minister Manoj Singh and Telecom Secretary J S Deepak had met key COAI officials and chief executives of the three largest telecom companies - Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea. The minister had categorically stated the government would continue to work without bias or discrimination.

Also Read: Jio Says Incumbents Failed To Share Interconnection Ports
 

 

Allegations of bias surfaced after the sector regulator released a consultation paper that sought to review interconnect charges, which currently stand at 14 paise per minute. An interconnect charge is paid to a telecom operator when a call from another telco terminates on its network.

Currently, interconnect charges contribute an estimated Rs 20,000 crore to the revenues of existing telcos. If this is scrapped, the top three telcos stand to lose Rs 5,000 crore each in a year. 
 

While incumbents have raised the ante against Trai’s consultation paper, Reliance Jio is in favour of interconnect charges being scrapped. Jio has argued that interconnect charges should be scrapped, as it would bring down costs of voice calls further and, in turn, benefit consumers. With a new entrant looking to enter the fray, the perception within the government is that these are adjustment issues, which will settle over time. 

Also Read: Now, COAI Knocks Prime Minister's Door
 

The minister and the secretary had conveyed to the industry captains that they should participate in the consultation process and Trai would look into their concerns. The DoT appears very keen to prevent any policy uncertainty before the auctions commence.  
 

Meanwhile, COAI, on Monday, wrote another letter to Nripendra Mishra, principal secretary in the PMO, raising the issue of a beta test being carried out by one operator wherein millions of subscribers are generating data and voice traffic that is rivalling that of incumbents. The letter states that the operator is using spectrum that has been allocated for commercial use on a revenue-share principle, but the government is receiving revenues, as the service is being offered free. COAI’s letter said that the operator - without naming Reliance Jio - has 2.5-3 million subscribers. The letter states that the view is that of majority members and not that of Jio. 

Also Read: COAI Vs Reliance Jio: All You Need To Know About This Telecom War
 

COAI has raised the issue of bundling of telecom services with Lyf handsets, which, incidentally, is the in-house smartphone brand of Reliance Digital. The letter says that the operator has been bundling services free with these on a large scale and the offer is not limited to a few hundred, thus, making it a commercial launch. Now the free minutes/bytes offer has been extended to non-Lyf handsets, too, without any bundling. The letter says: “But that is sterile because post launch of commercial operations, it is not possible to conduct pre-launch beta testing”.

Also Read: COAI-Trai Tussle To Impact Spectrum Auctions
 

The letter states that while the COAI expects the authorities to deal with unauthorised commercial services described as tests, other operators should not be expected to cross-subsidise this pseudo traffic through demands for unreasonable network resources on their networks. The COAI has claimed that the non-compliance is wide-ranging and that the authorities would ensure level-playing field by enforcing regulatory and licensing clarity.