New Delhi: The Industry's reaction to the basic guidelines announced by the Government today were as predictable as the policy itself. While the basic operators were happy and called the Government's decision to allow WLL mobility, "a victory for the masses and a step in the right direction," the cellular operators scoffed at the government's sop that the decision to drop their licence fee and make it comparable to that of basic operators, will pave the way for a level playing field. Said Mr Umang Das, managing director, corporate affairs, Spice Communications: "The key issues related to entry fee remain. The cellular industry has paid Rs 7,300 crore as entry fee for mobility and they still call it a level playing field?" However, he refused to comment on the limited mobility issue, since the matter is sub-judice.However, according to Mr Mahendar Nahata, director, HFCL Group, this is a "forward looking policy, which will help the operators provide cheaper services to the comman man and to increase tele-density."
Meanwhile, Mr Rajiv Mehrotra, managing director, Shyam Telecom, and president, Association of Basic Telecom Operators (ABTO) praised the Prime Minister, Regulator, and the Minister of Communications for having kept their promises for looking after the interest of the consumers. He was confident that this will "help double the tele-density in four years and will be instrumental in attracting a lot of investments in the telecom sectior."
Meanwhile the director general, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), Mr TV Ramachandran refused to comment on the issue of limited mobility as the issue is subjudice.
He however, commented on the other sops offered to the cellular operators to address the issue of `level playing field': "The issue of being able to provide fixed phone services on the existing GSM netowrk is reallly not a viable thing, because as the TRAI itself has accepted that the spectrum is not available to even provide optimal cellular services, how can one use the same spectrum to provide the basic services as well?" He also added that even the issue of entry fee too has not been adequately addressed.
Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
