Telecom turf heats up on capping access providers

New Delhi, July 18 (UNI) Vodafone today agreed with TRAI's recent stand on placing a cap on the number of access providers operating in the country even as other players like Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices (TTSL) crying foul over it.

At the open house session organised by TRAI here to discuss the consultation paper on 'Review of license terms and conditions and capping of number of access providers' saw heated discussions among different stakeholders including British telecom major Vodafone.

The Regulator had asked for capping the number of access providers' and emphasised the need to update the licensing and regulatory framework with technological change.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has said that the TRAI cannot take a unilateral view on the issue as it comes under the purview of the Competition Act, 2002.

On the issue of mergers, acqisitions and transfer of licenses, discussion with TRAI revolved around issues relating to defining markets, determining dominance and market power, maximum spectrum holdings for a merged entity, cross technology mergers, minimum number of access providers in a service area as a result of mergers and acqisitions.

Vodafone Group Chief Operating Officer Arun Sarin had, at the company's headquarters in Santa Clara, called for transparency in India's merger approval process to defeat backroom efforts, a statement which he later retracted.

TRAI's move to allocate spectrum to existing service providers also saw range of discussion.

Bharti wants spectrum to be given only to existing operators before others, while Vodafone Essar and Idea want equal treatment for license holders as well.

TTSL has been asking the government to announce a comprehensive and technology neutral spectrum policy that will assure a growth path for service providers.

Discussion also took place on TRAI's recommendation to give permission to the service providers for offering access services using combination of technology both GSM and CDMA under the same license.

The telecom sector has been witnessing tremendous growth in the past few years and the subscriber base in expected to touch 500 million by 2010. Given the target, these issues need to be sorted out to provide a level playing field to all the service providers across the country.

UNI