Free Mobility for a Small Price

The unified licensing regime might soon become a reality in India, if the recent TRAI recommendations are approved by the Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh. Though some of these recommendations might have widespread ramifications on the telecom scenario in the country, the common perception is that it would benefit the basic and WLL service providers (read Reliance) more at the expense of the GSM service providers. And, reading between the lines, it seems that this feeling might not be too wide off the mark.

Under TRAI recommendations, the first phase of unification would involve all basic and cellular service providers, while the second phase would involve all telecom services. Therefore, with a unified license both basic and cellular operators would be allowed to provide GSM and WLL services without the formality of acquiring a separate license. The WLL service provider migrating to unified regime would continue to provide wireless services in the already allocated spectrum and no additional spectrum would be allocated under the migrated process.

While cellular operators will not be required to pay any further license fee for migrating to the new regime, the entry fee for basic/WLL service providers would be the difference between the license fee paid by the fourth cellular operator in the circle and the charges already paid by them. This means that Reliance would have to pay Rs 1,096 crore for migration in its 17 existing circles, while Tata Teleservices would need to cough up Rs 129.13 crore for its six circles. 

Reliance has been slapped a further penalty of Rs 485 crore for offering cellular type services under WLL garb, primarily roaming through call forward and SMS. Though cellular operators are not required to pay any migration fee, they are somehow justifiably up in arms against the decision to allow Reliance to get away only with a monetary penalty. Their contention: Reliance has in all accounts become a cellular operator and by circumventing the DoT regulations in both letter and spirit with impunity. And this would have serious business repercussions for the GSM operators in lucrative circles where the government itself seems to be violating its norm of not having more than four operators. 

No wonder, COAI plans to knock the doors of the Supreme Court seeking implementation of the minority judgment in the TDSAT declaring limited mobility illegal. Otherwise, this might set a precedent where anyone can bend rules to their advantage, cough up penalty when caught, and have their way in the end. However, an interesting fallout of this ruling missed by many, is a possibility that Tata Teleservices may tie up with Idea Cellular in the post unification regime. 

RAJNEESH DE in Mumbai