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Navika Kumar
New Delhi, Jan 23: The draft telecom policy has suggested opening up virtually every segment in the telecom sector. The policy, which was submitted to the group on telecom on Saturday, has recommended a two-tier licence fee structure -- a fixed part which will be taken as entry fees from operators and a revenue sharing formula with the government. The revenue sharing formula will be ascertained by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) before June 30, 1999.
The draft policy has recommended the immediate opening up of domestic long distance telephone services -- which means private companies can come into the field to provide STD calls creating more competition in the rates for these calls. The licences for domestic long distance (DLD) will be valid for a 20-year period, extendable by another 10 years with no restrictions on the number of licences cornered by a single company. Different licencees will be allowed to interconnect between themselves, or any other service providers. International longdistance (ILD), which is currently a monopoly of the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL), should be reviewed in 2002, the draft report says against the government's present policy of reviewing this in 2004.Till such time however, "VSNL should be barred from entering the field of domestic Long distance services" the report says. "The VSNL should use its internal network, only to carry international calls," the report says.Apart from this, the draft has recommended a new nomenclature for all services - basic, cellular, paging and cable. Basic services will now be called `Fixed access service providers' (FASP), cellular operators will be called `cellular mobile access.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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