POLICY /

‘Won’t tolerate lax services after spectrum offered’

Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad feels that record earnings in spectrum auction display the confidence of mobile operators in India’s communications story and bring out the underlying “enormous business potential” in the market. Having secured Rs 1.1 lakh crore for the exchequer, Prasad wants the industry to now improve the quality of services offered to the consumers as their spectrum holdings go up after the auction. He tells TOI that the government has laid out a “transparent, enabling and credible auction process”, which has been the result of a massive confidence-building exercise both within the government as well as the outside stakeholders:

Are you surprised with the record earnings?

We had introduced an element of transparency and quick decision-making for this auction. There were a lot of enablers that we had thrown in such as introduction of 3G airwaves after successful negotiations with defence; putting up the highest quantity for sale at 471 MHz across four bands; liberalisation of 800 MHz spectrum; clarity on spectrum usage charges; and flexibility on earnest money deposit. My department worked as a team and this worked well for everybody.

Now that the companies will get higher spectrum holdings, do you think it’s time that consumers get a better deal and problems of call drops and poor connectivity get resolved?

Lax services will not be tolerated. I appeal to all the private telecom operators to address the consumers concern of call drops by improving their services after the infusion of new spectrum. They need to remember that consumer satisfaction is the best barometer for their growth.

Telecom industry associations as well as operators say that prices have been too high…

This is not a correct view. India is a very thriving market proposition for telecommunications and the players know about this. We have over 97 crore mobile phone connections, we are home to one of the biggest consumer base for Google and Facebook and we offer more than 300 million internet connections. The government’s ‘Digital India’ programme will add further to the prospects once it becomes operational. So, we have enormous potential.

Telcos say tariffs need to go up to fund spectrum purchase. Do you agree?

The auctions have shown that all misgivings about scarcity of spectrum, its cost as well as other concerns have turned out to be incorrect. About impact on tariffs, I maintain that the burden on players will be negligible at about 1.3 paise per connection per minute call. I am quite sure that the orchestrated campaign of tariff rise will also turn out to be unfounded because of the enormous business potential and competitive consumer satisfaction.

Source: ETTelecom

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


× 1 = one