The thrust of telecom policies (1994 and 1999) has been to get private investment to fund telecom development. This needed straightforward de-monopolisation. But the government hunted with the hound and ran with the hare. The result is the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has to contend with DoT, which is licensor, regulator and arbitrator besides being a dominant player. Trai's creation is the biggest achievement of telecom liberalisation, but is no match for DoT (whose officials have infiltrated Trai!). It is not surprising that of the 21 circles in basic telecom, private service providershave entered just six. The targeted 150 million lines by 2010 (against 20 million lines at present) seem a distant dream.

The trouble is that DoT is the policy-maker as well as licensor of private telecom networks which will compete with DoT and its companies, MTNL and VSNL. This has enabled DoT to retain its monopoly over inter-state and world telecommunications. Private networks have to pay access charges to DoT.

This virtually means that for a call originating from a private network in, say, Bangalore for Calcutta, DoT will collect the STD charge while the private network will get only the local call charge. The problem extends to even intra-state long distance calls. Without interconnectivity at a reasonable charge, private service providers cannot ensure quick calls or quality of voice transmission. This is a tough nut for Trai to crack.

It would have been different if DoT had been corporatised to push through telecom liberalisation with suitable amendments to, or overhaul of Indian TelegraphsAct. Moreover, there is the original sin of lavish licensing fees. These were offered by private service providers and accepted by government. It is now realised that mega licensing fees divert funds from investment. Revenue-sharing would be one alternative. After all, MTNL pays DoT a fixed fee of Rs 900 per line per year and VSNL pays it per minute of international call. But the licensing fee has no link with size of the private network. This egg too will have to be unscrambled to get private investment to accelerate telecom development. Five years after liberalisation, only MTNL is making head way. The rest, not even DoT, know which way they are headed.