ALLAHABAD, February 14: The cellular operators are up in arms against the reported clearance being accorded to connectivity between the wireless mobile system and the fixed telephone network.Already fighting tooth and nail to keep MTNL out of cellular telephony, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) is crying foul over the Department of Telecommunications' (DoT) proposed move to accord clearance for PSTN (public service telephone network) connectivity for the mobile radio trunking service (MRTS).
The association is considering taking up the matter with DoT chairman A V Gokak over the purported clearance accorded to PSTN connectivity for the MRTS by the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC), the Wireless Planning centre (WPC) and the technical committee of the DOT.
The members of COAI described this as a "backdoor entry by MRTS for the provision of public mobile telephony service". The cellular operators have expressed the apprehension that this would provide unfair competition for theirservices.
This, they maintain, is because not only are the licence fees levied by MRTS operators far lower than the cellular operators but the capex (capital expenditure) involved in setting up an MRTS network is significantly lower than that of cellular operators.
And since MRTS is considered a closed user group communication both as per international practice and as per the nature of the service, the cellular operators are strongly opposing the DoTs move to convert it into a public telecom service with PSTN interconnection.
An internal note prepared by COAI states that "to permit PSTN interconnection for the MRTS is to effectively give a licence to MRTS operators to compete with cellular operators for the provision of mobile telephony without having to make investments of anywhere near the magnitude made by the cellular operators." This, alleges the association, is tantamount to `a flagrant violation of the principles of level playing field for fair competition'.
In view of this, the COAI isplanning to place a request before the Telecom Commission chairman to withhold a final decision on the matter until an opportunity is provided to the cellular operators to make a detailed submission in this regard and "the entire process of decision making on this critical item is conducted in a consultative and transparent manner."
Incidentally, there is no provision whatsoever for any form of limited mobility telephone service through WLL (wireless in local loop) in the tender and licence documents for basic telephone services. In fact, at more than one place in these documents, it has been categorically stated that cellular mobile telephony should be excluded from the basic telephone service.
When contacted, a highly placed official of DoT while refusing to confirm or deny any move to provide PSTN interconnection to MRTS, however, argued that even if such a step was taken at any stage, it would be in the best interest of the consumers since it would provide them a choice between a variety oftechnologies, prices and suppliers for effective communication. The cellular operators are proposing to seek a review of the structure of licence fees to `ensure that all suppliers start on an equal footing'. Cautions a senior executive of a cellphone company, "If this is not done, all that will be accomplished by this encroachment of the already limited mobile telephony market by MTNL and possibly MRTS suppliers is the rapid demise of many cellular licensees many of which are already staggering under delays."
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
