New Delhi: Telecom regulator TRAI, in its meet with top officials of mobile service providers today is to discuss the major issues that should be taken up for deliberation during 2019.
Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), R S Sharma, along other senior officials will be present at the agenda-setting meeting with chief executives of telecom companies, sources confirmed. The industry-wide discussion is now an annual affair and the priority areas for 2018, too, were drawn up through discussion with industry players.
A similar exercise is also expected to be held with broadcasting firms, although the date for that is yet to be finalised, a TRAI official said. An industry source said the telecom operators could look for some clarity on the road map and timing for 5G auctions at the upcoming meeting.
The industry – which is not generating enough cash to even service loans – may also rake up the issue of high levies such as spectrum usage charges.
During this year, the TRAI came out with recommendations on a slew of prominent issues including spectrum auction and pricing, and framework for privacy, security and ownership of the data in the telecom sector, while consultation is currently underway to explore regulatory regime for over-the-top (OTT) players.
Trai’s latest consultation paper on OTT seeks public opinion on whether same rules should be prescribed for applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Google Duo, as are applicable on telecom operators. OTT refers to applications and services that are accessible over the Internet and ride on an operator’s network. Skype, Viber, WhatsApp and Hike are some examples of popular and widely-used OTT services.
Discussions might also include fibre connectivity as there are increasing instances of call drops and slow internet connectivity.
Industry statistics also reveal that the fixed line subscriber base has declined 0.38 per cent from 22.27 million in July 2018 to 22.19 million in August, with 1.18 billion mobile connections currently transporting 97 per cent of data wirelessly.
| Improving service quality |
| RS Sharma has stated that fibre-based wireline connectivity would drastically help in improving telecom operators’ service quality, given the limitations of the wireless medium.
“It is difficult to ensure service quality in wireless medium that has its own limitations related to bandwidth quality and upload and download issues. India should come on the fixed-line broadband infrastructure,” RS Sharma, said. In a recent Speedtest Global Index, US-based Ookla, a broadband network testing firm, ranked India 67th for fixed broadband speed with 20.72 megabit per second (mbps), below the average download speed of 42.71 mbps worldwide. |