Regulatory stalemate

While 2 million subscribers get added to the telecom network every month, the congestion on the network has multiplied. In July, according to Trai, there were 86 Points of Interconnection (a PoI is the junction where, for instance, a Reliance network connects to a Bharti one) where the congestion levels were as high as 10 per cent, itself 20 times worse than the benchmark. The number increased to 122 PoIs in August. At the heart of the problem is the refusal of the government-owned operator, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), which controls 79 per cent of the country's fixed lines, to allow private operators to connect to its customers. Trai has cited 918 such cases of pending demands, of which 367 have been pending for more than a year. The problem is that while Trai ordered that such interconnection be provided within a maximum of 90 days, BSNL challenged the order at the telecom tribunal, or TDSAT, which ruled that Trai did not have the power to order interconnections. Trai has challenged this in the Supreme Court, but no date has been set for the hearing.

In fact, the ministry has not moved on the Trai recommendations on unified licensing, which would allow users to offer any service, telephone or TV or internet, on a single licence. No action has been taken on TRAI's recommendation to reduce tariffs for VPN services on the internet. Nor has the telecom ministry asked Trai to give its recommendations on reducing international and national long-distance tariffs (under the law, a Trai recommendation is mandatory before the ministry takes any decision), and the move to reduce the access deficit charge paid by telecom users across the country to BSNL also remains in limbo. The recommendation that, as in the rest of the world, the incumbent operator (BSNL) should be forced to allow others to use its last-mile access to provide broadband internet services, though desirable from the nation's point of view, has been rejected by the government. While many blame the current problem on the apparent personality clash between the Trai chief and the telecom minister, there can be no change unless BSNL is forced to observe regulatory discipline. And, since the Trai chief is there till March, waiting for him to go is no solution.