Sibal urges warring telcos to bury hatchet

Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday asked the country's warring telecom companies to bury the hatchet in order to avoid an adverse impact on the growth of the industry.

"I have urged the stakeholders that the captains of industry must get together and iron out the differences among themselves because no industry can be robust if it is fractious," Sibal said after the meeting.

Leading telecom players such as the Anil Ambani-run Reliance Communications (RCom) and Tata Teleservices Ltd have been engaged in a war of words with each accusing the other of having cornered spectrum.

Sibal held detailed discussions on issues ranging from spectrum sharing, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), annual spectrum usage charge and rising disputes among the telecom firms. "A range of issues were on the table. Basically as you know Trai had given its recommendations way back in May last year and then its latest recommendations on spectrum management in February 2011," Sibal said.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) director Rajan S. Mathew said, "The minister has asked us to give our recommendations by the end of the month in order to sort out the differences in the industry."

The Trai recommendations on spectrum management and licensing, which had come in for sharp criticism from most of the leading telecom players, were discussed at the deliberations held by the minister. The spectrum charges recommended by Trai are considered too steep by the telcos.

"Now these issues will be taken to the Telecom Commission and later the government will take a decision on them. I have a 100-day agenda and I keep my 100-day agenda," Sibal remarked. He is working on drawing up a comprehensive National Telecom Policy 2011 as part of this agenda. Bharti Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor said, "There needs to be a level playing field and that is what matters and that is what we as operators are demanding."

Airtel had criticised Trai's recommendations as being against the stated principle of the Centre to offer affordability, fairness and a level playing field. RCom had alleged that Trai's recommendations favoured old operators. It had claimed that if the recommendations were accepted it would cause Rs 6,500 crore loss to the Centre.

During the conference, Sibal discussed delinking of spectrum from licensing of access service in future and renewal of licences, among other things. "Well, I think it is something which has to be tried because ultimately for the harmonious functioning of the sector, this is desirable and every effort in that direction has to be made," secretary, department of telecom (DoT), R. Chandrasekhar said.

"The next step is to take it to the Telecom Commission but as the minister has indicated we would need to leave some time for a possible meeting of minds and arriving at a consensus," he explained.

"I would not like to put a timeframe. We would try to take forward the decision making process at the earliest," Chandrashekhar added.

Courtesy: Mail Today