COAI criticises TRAI recommendations

The regulator had, however, compensated the cellular industry by way of lowering licence fee (revenue share) to 12 per cent from existing 17 per cent and also proposed to allow them to offer basic services on their cellular network.

The COAI has convened an emergency meeting of all the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of cellular companies to review the situation arising out of TRAI’s yesterday announcement, he added. The meeting would like to review the discriminatory treatment being meted out to the cellular industry and to re-consider the industry’s future expansion plans, he said.

"We would also like to Express our serious concern and dissatisfaction with the explanatory memorandum of the TRAI recommendations which is not only full of contradictions but also features over-simplification of several critical issues which have been dealt with through untenable rationalisations," Ramachandran said.

Telecom sector had mobilised the highest foreign direct investment (FDI) across all the sectors, Ramachandran said, adding that more than 50 per cent of the telecom FDI has been in the cellular industry.

TRAI recommendations that fixed service providers be permitted Short Distance Charging Area (SDCA) based mobility would allow the service providers to not only fully cover the metros, but also all the cities and towns in a circle service area, COAI said.

Further, it would be impossible to confine the call to within the SDCA limits since radio waves were not stoppable by any artificial administrative boundary, Ramachandran said, pointing out that the Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) phone would work in any and all SDCAs.

The association also said that TRAI’s recommendations would adversely affect the bidding for the fourth cellular licence. COAI has conservatively estimated that the government would stand to lose as much as Rs 3,000 crore on this account, Ramachandran said.