Suggestions to revamp Telecom in India.

Suggestions to revamp Telecom in India. An open letter to Hon. MOC and others.

Spectrum should not be sold out by auction or otherwise as it will be like opening of Pandora's box as I have been pointing out for years.

Also de-linking of Spectrum from license and making available only by auction is an unworkable proposal and hence should not be done. Instead, Spectrum shall be allocated according to need to each licensed operator. Unused spectrum shall be surrendered. Spectrum shall be given on a base lease charge per quantum and a revenue share in addition; depending on the number of active customers or based on total minutes of usage of network.

Network operation and service provision shall be segregated. Number of network operators in an area shall be restricted to a maximum of 2 to 3 of each technology to fully exploit available spectrum and reduce CAPEX & OPEX. Additional Service providers shall be given license to encourage competition only as Virtual Network providers sharing these networks of the licensed network operators. 

Indigenous manufacturing of Telecom H/W and S/W should be implemented on  war footting basis in view of the security considerations as well as to reduce FOREX out flow.

Rural Telecom coverage shall be enhanced using Optical fiber cables across the country and wireless links for the local connectivity, using USO fund. Rural telephony shall be subsided, both at service provider and user levels.

Convergence of Fixed phone and Mobile phone networks, end links, user end devices and services by all telecom service providers shall be encouraged. Solar power enabled mobile phone chargers shall be made available in public places and at subsidized price for mobile phone users in the rural areas where there is no electricity and for those who cannot afford electric connection.

Facility shall be made available for Non-banking and non-internet-dependent money transaction services with phones using the technology identical to the prepaid phone service. Plese see my articles in this community on "Money through Mobile (MTM) system as proposed by me.  'MTM'  is envisaged as common system and service that can provide service all phone users; set up by a consortium of Telecom service providers or by a third party on revenue share / profit share basis with telecom service providers.

With such a system, money transaction service could be given without any service cost to user; by profitably deploying the huge amount of real cash remain within the system and franchisee charges from commercial and institutional dealers. The facility can be extended to Fixed lines also.

The UUID cards (ADHAR) when ready could be used for KYC and linking the Mobile user accounts with various money management services. All welfare payments could be done direct to beneficiaries  phone accounts without middlemen or in between agencies.   

Technology decisions shall be the responsibility of experienced technocrats in the system and not to be attempted or interfered by political masters in the government.  There shall be more clarity and transparency on functional areas of DOT and TRAI. GOM etc should not interfere with decisions of DOT and TRAI on policies related to technology and regulatory issues.

The CAG, the finance and account guys should not look into Telecom merely as any other industry and as means for money making instrument for Govt. only. This was one of the problems for the failures of erstwhile DOT run Telecom as most of the accountants in the business and administration with no foresight  stangled its growth depriving the profit pumped back into the system and treating customers as enemies of the system. Telecom and information technology is vital for country's overall growth and provides valuable service to general public and hence to be dealt accordingly by all.  

Technology is changing too fast. The entire Telecom & IT bubble collapsed due to wrong decision by the developed world in pre-maturely going in for 3G. Similarly the entire world economy collapsed due to mis-adventures of the developed world. Instead of sitting and weeping about all negatives and failures that happen in the system and making court case and filling jails, they all moved forward looking towards the future. It is time Indian politicians and media and the so called saints  masquerading as sole representatives of Indian civil society, learn something from other parts of the world we live.