On the rationale of drastic restructuring of the telecom tariffs and impact:

Rationalisation is the need of the hour. You can't liberalise the economy without rationalising the tariff structures which were not exactly based on sound economic fundamentals. Such an elaborate exercise has not been done in last several decades.

The situation today has made such restructuring imperative. We need to make things simpler and realistic. Tariffs need to be closer to actual costs of operation while keeping them largely revenue-neutral for the service providers. We need to make the telecom sector grow and at the same time, make things easier for the consumer. And I think we have achieved all that.

On how binding will these proposals be:

We have put these across only as proposals which are subject to discussion. I have no doubt that there may be areas that we may have omitted and by no means will all our proposals be perfect. The thing to look for is what the final picture will emerge once the consultations are finished before the year-end.

On possible controversies on the proposed hikes in rentals:

A lot of factors will come up, I am sure. But we have done what we feel is the right thing under the circumstances. We would welcome a heated debate on all the issues and are very open to any suggestions. We are quite open to the idea of having changes and modifications in these proposals, if the need is felt. But we have kept in mind how all the user segments will be affected in the long-term before undertaking such a mammoth exercise.

On how the exercise was carried out:

After setting out the various principles and methodologies in our first paper on tariff, we had a wide-ranging debate with various segments, compiled the data, studied the prevailing systems in other countries and analyzed the various options available to us. There are proposals, reasons for these proposals, the related data and how we have analyzed that data to arrive at our conclusions. Now when the consultations take place, I want the people to walk up to TRAI and fault us on any of our observations. We hope it generates a wide-ranging debate. Instead of sitting as judge, I may be sitting in the dock. It may be a new experience for me.

On revenue loss to service providers due to lowering STD and ISD charges:

With this decrease, we expect the revenues to actually go up as the usage will go up tremendously. We are being conservative by calling them revenue-neutral. We have kept various consumption patterns in mind.

On TRAI lacking teeth:

Who says we don't have teeth? We wouldn't be here if we were powerless.

But we have been telling the government that they should look at this issue as a policy issue. Today, it is not as if the aggrieved party is without any remedy, but it is for the policymakers to decide on the issue of our powers. The matter is sub judice. But I have gone public earlier also and I repeat that the issue of our powers must be decided quickly. Once matters go to court, it takes a lot of time. Telecom is a sector where we cannot afford delays, it will be very expensive for the country as we are the first regulatory authority of its kind.

The very first decision of TRAI was contested. Our role encompasses recommendations and advises, dispute settlement and tariff setting. Now if we don't have the first two under our jurisdiction, we will be left with virtually no job except look into the quality of services after the tariff issue is settled. So that is obviously not a happy situation for a regulatory authority.

On doubts about TRAI's independence if funding comes from private service providers as well as the DoT:

TRAI must have financial independence. We want to remain small, compact and do comprehensive, quality-oriented job. Hence, there is no escape from the need to hire outside consultants which costs a lot of money. But we will effect it in a manner that whichever source the money comes from, it will have no bearing whatsoever on our functioning and decisions. Not only will we continue to work within the specified law, our work is also subject to audit by the Auditor General of India. So there is no question of compromising on independence whatsoever. After all, the money will not be coming to our pockets, it will be TRAI's fund corpus. Funding mechanism exercise will be our next agenda, but we have unfortunately not received communication from DoT. Regulations will have to be framed and put before the Parliament as per the TRAI Act.