Two days after Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone Essar announced creating an independent company for tower business, Competition Commission of India (CCI), the nodal body for looking into anti-competitive practices, has said such telecom infrastructure ventures must treat all operators that seek services at par with the telcos having stake in the venture.
CCI said there must be strict guidelines on rentals for sharing towers in such companies and provisions regarding ?open and non-discriminatory access?, or else new players would be at a disadvantage and thereby violating the principles of fair competition.
The leading GSM operators had on December 8 announced formation of an independent tower company Indus Towers to provide services to all operators in India. It will control 70,000 towers out of 1.1 lakh towers in the country. Though it was hailed as a major step towards sharing of passive infrastructure, CCI sources said the issue was of maintaining the ?independence? of the new company.
While welcoming the efficiency resulting from such common tower firms as well as the fact that it will help reduce the growth of towers thereby making the sector more environment-friendly, CCI member Vinod Dhall told FE that ?it should not curb competition in tower and telecom industries?.
?Companies which don?t share in ownership of such joint ventures should not be put to disadvantage in competing, as lack of competition will ultimately affect the efficiency and consumer interest in the tower and telecom industries,? he added.
Tower companies must be allowed to carry out its operations as per market forces and there should not be any preferential treatment to the companies holding stake in it, he said. Tower companies should also not be influenced in any manner by its stake-holding companies while fixing rentals.
However, he made it clear that his statements on the topic were made on a hypothetical basis and not on any specific case. Since the CCI enforcement activities are yet to start, it can?t comment on a specific case or undertake any enquiry.
?If found that competitors did not have equal access to such infrastructure, such abuse and misuse of dominance will come under the purview of competition laws,? officials said, adding, ?there would be consultations between CCI and the regulator before taking any action against companies found guilty of violating competition laws?.
Telecom companies on their part said seeking premium in rentals for tower sharing would be decided by market forces and no external authority should dictate market terms. After all such companies have been created to unlock shareholders? value.