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Siddharth Zarabi
New Delhi, Jan 22: The sub-group on telecommunication (sub-GoT), headed by ICICI chief executive KV Kamath, submitted its final recommendations on various issues of the telecom industry on Friday to the Group on Telecommunication (GoT).
Sources said that the crucial issue of opening up KU-band frequencies (4,800 mhz and above), a long-standing demand of V-Sat operators and satellite television channels will be finalised at the GoT meeting on January 23. The liberation of the spectrum will pave the way for Direct-To-Home (DTH) services and also increase the usage of V-Sats in India.
Sources indicated that while the Kamath report had recognised various technological advances and changes leading to convergence in the areas of satellite television, telecom and Internet, the issue of allowing free-for-all in the basic services had not found favour within GoT.
The delicensing of basic servcies will impact existing operators, even though very little progress has been made in achieving the targets spelt out inthe telecom policy of 1994. The policy is likely to announce a special package for the basic service operators through a revenue-sharing scheme.
The issue of existing celluar operators with regard to license fee payments will be addressed through a similar revenue-sharing agreement. The report will also permit the entry of a third operator in the cellular circles.
The sub-group has also debated to what extent the convergence of technologies will impact the existing licencees. Problems of convergence of licenses for different services in the field of telecommunications will therefore be sorted out in the new telecom policy.
The final sub-GoT report has been prepared on the basis of three reports from Ratan Tata, N Vittal and department of telecommunication (DoT). The sub-group has not said anything on DTH specifically as this issue was not part of the group's terms of reference. The GoT will now take a final view on the fate of existing licences in different services such as cellular, basic, V-Sat,E-Mail, Internet, among others, before making the recommendation public next month.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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