Good Morning Dear MMS Reader,
If you go by the explosion in subscriber base, data consumption, and affordable tariffs/handsets, Indian telecom has outcomes other countries would die for. If you go by how many players lost their shirt, how the sector is poised on the brink of a duopoly, and how the infighting has left the industry bruised and financially feeble, it’s a playbook few would want to emulate.
Whichever side of the fence one may be on, it’s not hard to miss that the joke is on the regulator, a toothless tiger. For the last 15 years, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has been writing confidential letters to its parent, the Department of Telecom (DoT), asking for some real powers. DoT has turned a blind eye. In a most intriguing move, DoT has handed over the audit of unused spectrum lying with the state agencies to the Comptroller and Auditor General, even though Trai has more competence.
Trai has neither penalizing power, nor any financial autonomy. Three of its five leadership roles are lying vacant, one of which is for a full-time technical member. The position has been vacant since 2018, even though the law states that these positions must be filled within three months of being vacant. The telco infighting of the recent past may have reduced, but a whole new sector in space, OTT, IoT, and AI is emerging, which Trai looks woefully ill-equipped to regulate.
Not surprising then that in the International Telecommunication Union’s Global ICT Regulatory Outlook 2020, India scores lower than countries such as Pakistan and a few Southeast Asian and African countries in terms of maturity and collaborative approach.
For years, Trai has been recommending rationalization of levies, spectrum user charges and re-calculation of Adjusted Gross Revenue—issues at the center of the current telecom crisis. DoT is finally considering them now. Irony may have died but there’s a primal call from the pyre for MASSIVE reforms.
“Jio telecom has happened—the market has matured—and it may be time now for a true sector referee with teeth,” says a former member of Ofcom, the UK regulator. #yusufbhandarkar
