Telecom sector unaffected by global meltdown: TRAI

New Delhi, Nov 28 (UNI) Telecom Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman Nripendra Misra today said the country's telecom sector is almost insulated from the current financial crisis.

''The current global financial crisis is, of course, now one of the major constraints on the pace of economic reform, but the Indian telecom sector, because of its innate strength and resilience, is perhaps one of the few sectors that have remained almost unaffected by this adverse global trend,'' Mr Misra said.

Speaking at the roundtable conference on 'India Telecom Landscape 2012', organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here, he released the CII&EY Report ''India 2012: Telecom Growth Continues'.

Mr Misra highlighted the new challenges facing the telecom industry. ''The process of spectrum management must capture the three cardinal features of good governance -- predictability, stability and transparency,'' he said.

He added that ''the entire decision making mechanism in the telecom sector should be in the public domain.'' ''We are facing challenges on different fronts. One is to ensure technology neutrality principle in the spectrum allocation.

There are also talks about subscriber-linked spectrum allocation.

But once we go for the auction route, we can not adhere to such methods,'' he said.

Mr Misra said, ''India's problems can not be solved in the regular prescribed environment. Rather, it must have India-specific approach. We must remember that 90 per cent revenue in the telecom sector comes from top 10 per cent and the remaining 90 per cent contribute only marginally.'' ''Hence, I believe, a balanced look at the process of spectrum allocation, keeping in mind that the spectrum is such a scarce entity, is very important to maximise revenue earnings,'' he added.

UNI SBA SB RAI2111