The private telecom companies whose licences have been cancelled by the Supreme Court in connection with the 2G scam will have to stop their services by 2nd June, the last date of the four months time given by the apex court. Some companies like Etisalat wanted to stop before the due date, but TRAI directed them to continue up to 2nd June.

In the meantime the central government had made a Presidential Reference on the matter to find out the details of the orders and how it will affect the allotment of natural resources in future.

Kapil Sibal, Communications Minister inaugurated yesterday, 10th April 2012, the  4G services  by Airtel at Kolkata which is being done with the support of the Chinese company ZTE. Airtel is proposing to start services in four circles iincluding in Maharashtra, Chandigarh and Bangalore.

This raises certain questions. The first is that why BSNL, the public sector telco, has not started 4G services first as it started 3G services? Second, how Airtel, which started 3 G services after one year of the same started by BSNL has been able to start 4G in such a short time? Third, how the private company Airtel is allowed to launch the services with the support of a Chinese company ZTE, while BSNL was denied permission to purchase equipment from the Chinese companies ZTE and Huawei citing national security? How Reliance Communications is allowed to take loan from Chinese financial institutions and to purchase Chinese equipments from ZTE and Huawei,  while the purchase from the same companies are not allowed by BSNL?

The answers are very clear. While it is the responsibility and duty of the Central Government to help and support its own companies, BSNL and MTNL, to procure equipment in sufficient quantity, help it to improve its services and fiancial viability, taking in to consideration that these PSUs are vehicles for providing universal service throughout the country, the government is not only not helping its PSUs, but is acting against their interests. Further it is helping the private companies even violating its own decisions and rules. This has been amply proved by the Supreme Court when it cancelled the 122 Licences granted to the private companies.

Despite the apex court decisions and the need for transparency in its dealings, the Government and its ministers are going out of the way to help the MNCs and big private companies. This should be exposed and defeated.

I am reproducing a report published in the Economic Times:

“The government is likely to declare some 400 officers in the telecom department as surplus following their refusal to consider re-employment in BSNL.

These Indian Telecom Service executives, who had transferred to the DoT from cash-strapped BSNL in November, are likely to be moved to a surplus staffers cell in the HRD ministry, according to a senior official of BSNL.”

With the increasing mobile telephones, DOT is trying to rearrange the number system for telephones. Considering the fact that landlines and CDMA lines are mostly on the decline, it is proposing to utilise these numbers for mobile phones. Accordingly landlines numbers will be restricted to numbers starting with 2 and 4. Series starting with 92 and 93, which are mainly for the CDMA numbers, will also be allotted to GSM telephones.

However, the proposal of the TRAI to allot ten digit numbers to landlines has not been accepted by the DOT.

The unwanted telemarketing calls, called pesky calls, are creating such a nuisance that it should not only be banned, but should be punished with heavy penalties and jail term. The latest technologies are being used by the market forces to impose these unwanted calls and SMSs on the subscribers with impunity. Valuable time is compelled to be wasted. Sometimes, the SMSs and calls are also cleverly charged on the receiver.

I appreciate the TRAI for its continued instructions and directions to stop this menace. May be it has been reduced to a certain extent, but the telemarketers are finding out new ways not to get caught and punished.

As per the earlier instructions TRAI has stated that it has penalised 22,000 users and 94 telemarket firms for earlier violations. But not much has been improved. Now the TRAI has reiterated again the instructions on this subject.

TRAI has asked the persons who does not want unsolicited calls/data to register with National Customer Preference Register (NCPR). If violations are found out it should also be reported. If individuals are sending these unwanted messages, their telephones will be got disconnected.

Let us hope these actions will at least reduce the menace.

It is reported by PTI that the additional spectrum with the old telecom companies may be charged a one-time fee. One of the recommendations was that the spectrum already allotted from 4.4 to 6.2 MHz and from 2.5 to 5 MHz in GSM and CDMA bands, respectively, may be charged prospectively.

Spectrum already allotted beyond 6.2 MHz/5 MHz in GSM/ CDMA bands may be charged prospectively, it added.

Earlier, the government was looking at charging a one-time fee for the extra spectrum beyond the contracted limit of 6.2 MHz from the date of allocation. This would have put a huge financial burden on the old GSM operators.

Leading telecom operators, including Bharti, Vodafone and Idea, have been opposing this saying there was no such clause in the telecom licences under which this type of levy can be imposed.

Moreover, the operators have claimed that allotment of spectrum to them was as per the policy of the day.

The one-time fee was recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and the amount was computed by experts, the presentation said.

The regulator had recommended that each MHz of additional spectrum, after the 6.2 MHz limit held by operators should cost a one-time Rs 4,571.87 crore (all-India).

Yesterday, it was mentioned in this blog that the private telcos may be fined about Rs. 823 crore for cheating the government on showing reduced revenue for calculation of payment of revenue share to the government. Now it has been reported that these companies have been ordered to pay by the DOT a total amount of Rs. 1,600 crore including penalty. The details of the penalty to be paid by these five companies are as follows:

1. Reliance                 Rs. 551 crore

2. Bharti Airtel         Rs. 292 crore

3. Vodafone              Rs. 254 crore

4. Idea                       Rs. 113  crore

5. Tata                       Rs. 273 crore.

But whether the companies will pay the fine? Naturally, they will pressurise the government, approach the TDSAT and Courts and somehow ensure that the penalties are not paid. The government will succumb at last. This is our experience.

The DoT has started the process for auctioning of the 700 Mhz band of Spectrum which can be used for providing broad band services using fourth generation (4G) technologies.

The Government is also trying to get the 45 Mhz wireless spectrum from the Defence for the use of telecom services.

It is interesting that these news have been coming now and then, but nothing has happened so far. BSNL was entrusted with the job of laying the network for Defence so that the latter can release the spectrum. It is not known what is the present position of the same.

HIGHLIGHTS

v  In Wireless (GSM+CDMA) segment, monthly growth improved to 94.7 lac in December’11 compared to November’11. Top two performers in net Wireless Subscribers addition in Dec.’11 are: Idea (23.9 lac) & Uninor (21.2 lac). Videocon & S-Tel registered negative growth. BSNL added 7.5 lac.

v  Amongst BSNL Circles, Bihar has given a pleasant surprise by recording highest Wireless Subscribers’ growth of 4.5 lac in Dec.’11 followed by Kerala (1 lac), Karnataka (84K), Maharashtra (73K) & Orissa (72K). Five Circles posted negative growth in Dec.’11 viz. AP (2 lac), WB (45K), Haryana (5K), Gujarat (2K) & HP (1K). In VLR position of Dec.’11,Andhra Pradesh   Circle tops with 70.43%, followed by Maharashtra – 67.23%, J&K- 66.75%, Kerala- 65.83% &NE- 60.38%. Kolkata TD continues to occupy the last position with 34.05%.

v  VLR – Visitor Location Register shows the actual number of active Wireless telephones. In December 2011, VLR report indicated that only 72.36% (64.68 crore) of all wireless subscribers were active. Company-wise detailed status is shown in the table.

v  Urban – Rural Divide on the Basis of Tele- Density: After a brief respite in Nov’11, the gap i.e. Urban TD minus Rural TD, has again widened in Dec’11. Figures for consecutive nine months are: April’11= 125.2, May’11= 126.2, June’11= 127.5, July= 127.8%, Aug’11= 128.7%, Sep’11=129.6%, Oct’11=130.2%, Nov’11=129.9% & Dec’11=130.4%.

Analyst: Mihir Dasgupta, Kolkata, 31.01.2012