Ten commandments for India Telecom evolution.

(A consolidated view on the issues related to Pan-India telecom and e-Business growth.)

Author: Abraham Paul   MD  FCOMNET 

1. Scrap Boundaries within the nation. Treat the country as one service area.            

Allow Interconnects between own and other Service Provider networks.

Review NLD policy. NLD licensing in the present form is an impractical concept and need to have a re-look. 

Allow common Charging Gateways to enable revenue sharing between stake holders.   

2. Segregate the business of Network Operation and Service Provision. 

These are different ball games. Each will do better when conceptually segregated and managed separately.

• Less the number of Networks, better will be the resource utilization, less systems and network costs and better network quality.
• More number of Service Providers bring in healthy competition, lower service costs and better service quality.  
• Network sharing by Service Providers will make the business more viable and can reduce cost to the users. 

3. Give end users, freedom to choose and use any Service Provider / Network anywhere any time. 

·   Provide full number Portability by Seamless Roaming  with Optimal Routing  in  Wireless  Networks, which are possible in GSM networks.

•   Innovate the idea of providing roaming in fixed network by introducing  HLR /   VLR concept and SIM in the user device, and provide full number portability with it.

·      Adopt Service Provider based National numbering plan. +Cc-Sp-Ts-Cn

·     where Cc is the country code, Sp is the service provider identity, Ts is the type of service and Cn is Customer number.

·     Provide optimal routing in wireless networks. May be later in fixed network also when roaming in place. 

·     Provide Carrier Selection feature.      Enable Carrier Selection with built in technology in the system to ask for Preferred Carrier code ‘Pc’ during the process of Call routing at each leading exchange using Intelligent Networking. 

    4. Rural Telecom shall be the joint responsibility.  

Telecom services in rural areas cannot be and should not be left as the sole responsibility of any one Service Provider. The current rural networks will become sub-urban and urban networks later, and the licensed service providers in the service area would then claim business access.

Make it mandatory that all licensed Service Providers in a service area share rural Telecom service. 

Ensure Rural customers get the opportunity to choose and use at will, the network that provide cheaper and better service. 

On achieving the above, ADC in the present form becomes irrelevant. As the volume of other networks overgrows the incumbent’s systems, the ADC becomes meaningless and will have to be reversed.  

5.  Meld Telecom & IP services to push growth of Data and e-business in Wired and Wireless Networks.

Open out Telecom to the needs of IP by allowing Telecom Signaling interface to inter-work with external IP servers and routers  in PDN.

Use User  to User Signaling (UUS) in CCS signaling for pre-call authentication for security of transactions. Allow the non-commercial users, to avail long distance communication on VoiP networks. 

Use USSD ( Unstructured supplementary service data) as bearers between telecom and IP systems. This is faster and works on real time basis unlike SMS which is store and forward method of communication.

Selling out the spectrum by auction will end up in hoarding of spectrum by few.  Allow spectrum usage on lease or revenue sharing basis on condition to vacate it when required for advanced technology products.  

9. Allow FDI in telecom industry only in Telecom & IP indigenous manufacturing and R&D areas. 

Need more focus on investment in R&D to develop and deployment of indigenous Hardware and Software  in Telecom and IP and related infrastructure.    Insist on technology transfer to local companies and revive ITI  and other such local Telecom & its Infrastructure manufacturers.  

10. Have more focuss on Quality of Service. In the rush of business, let not QoS be compromised.

Most of the Service Providers/Network operators do not adhere to even the basic fundas of standard Telecom practices and performance parameters.

Service Providers push to sell with no matching network capabilities. Many features and high Data speed being promised in the data services are rarely realized.  Call centres and Customer care services of many service providers leave much to be desired in quality of service. 

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Abraham Paul  MD, FCOMNET  

Ex: V. P. Tech. Sales, SPCNL SIEMENS India  / Director T.S, SIEMENS ICN RHQ UAE / G.M. BPL. Mobile Networks India / Telecom Engg. Service, DOT India.