Shourie plays mediator to solve phone wars

‘‘The group will finish its work in two weeks and we will meet again on March 1 to take stock of the situation. They will decide by Tuesday the issues which need to be deliberated,’’ Shourie told newspersons after a seven-hour meeting.

The committee would go into three main issues, one of which is how to ensure that the mobility under WLL services remain limited as per the licence, an issue on which the two segments in telecom sector have been at loggerhead over the last two years.

The group would also look into the issue of level playing field to see if the field was uneven for one type of service providers and also identify competitive safeguards required for future.

In true Shourie style, there were no short cuts, as the minister kept the entire day free to hear out operators and find ways and means to resolve issues between operators who between them had put in close to Rs 40,000 crore as investments in the sector.

S. Ramakrishna of Tata Teleservices presented on behalf of the basic operators for 45 minutes with the cellphone industry presentation being made for over three hours by Virat Bhatia of AT&T. Shourie sat through the entire session in rapt attention with keen observations throughout the day.

Among the observations Shourie made was one which said that there could be a movement towards a convergent licence for all services so that there would be no disputes, to which the cellular industry raised the issue of compensation on commercial basis. Shourie has left the matter to the committee now to come up with answers.

Terming the meeting as historical, Ambani said ‘‘I am optimistic that the sector will not only help add huge value to Indian public but also help India find a place in the world.’’

Stating that the group had representatives from public and private sector as well as government officials, Ambani expressed hope that the ‘‘partnership will deliver value.’’

With regard to the contentious issue of roaming on WLL phones, as advertised by Reliance, Ambani said ‘‘Reliance is committed to stick to licence conditions. Our services are limited mobility and we will have multiple registration system (MRS) which is different from roaming.’’

Sunil Mittal, however, refused to comment on this, saying ‘‘the group will meet and consider all possibilities. We will like to understand the system as explained by Ambani and then take a decision.’’