NEW DELHI: The DoT panel looking at various issues for the forthcoming New Telecom Policy has recommended that the country be considered as a single region – instead of the current 22 circles – a move that will spare customers roaming fee while travelling.
Roaming fees for voice calls have dropped considerably in recent years thanks to intense competition. So, the proposal may not have a significant effect. However, what is the effect of one-nation-one-market policy on 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) services? In the case of voice roaming, the TRAI regulation implemented in 2007 ensured no rental or surcharges can be levied by operators.
TRAI has also regulated the maximum permissible per-minute charges for roaming calls, irrespective of terminating network and tariff plan. Moreover, multi-SIM mobiles have reduced the relevance of roaming.
A user who often roams typically has two SIMs, one from an operator in the home circle and another from an operator in the roaming circle to reduce roaming charges. With no operator holding a pan-India licence for 3G and only one operator for BWA – and assuming that the operators had a rationale and business models for picking up circles of their choice and paying the huge spectrum fee for the same in last year’s auction – combining the circles for data roaming could be tricky.
A recent report says that the country has over 25 million data subscribers and about 49% of Internet users use only mobile phone for accessing the Internet. In the initial stages, it will be the high-Arpu, post-paid subscribers in metros and category-A circles who will be the innovator segment to adopt 3G/ BWA, and it is likely that the subscribers will use data roaming to a large extent. Without a regulatory oversight, the larger operators are likely to have better bargaining power in the roaming negotiations and, hence, the smaller operators might be disadvantaged, both for originating and terminating roaming data calls.
In BWA, it is worse. The smaller Internet service providers that got the BWA spectrum are at the receiving end of pan-India unified access service providers who can leverage on the scale of their operations.
As of now, data roaming charges are not regulated across the world. EU has drawn up a three-year plan for reducing roaming tariff for data. As per the new regulation, subscribers will have to pay a maximum of 90 cents per MB of data by July 2012.
The charges will go down substantially to 50 cents by July 2014. EU has also defined ceiling charges for wholesale rates, between two operators. Some mobile operators have launched 3G services in circles without having won the spectrum for the same in the auction.
Though not likely , the operator could have refarmed the existing 2G spectrum in the 900 and 1,800 MHz to offer 3G services. This is being practised by some CDMA operators to provide high-speed data services in the 800 MHz they received for 2G services.
There is consensus that the industry needs to move towards spectrum allocation independent of technology, thereby bringing in efficiency of spectrum usage. For example, earlier this year, UK’s regulator Ofcom allowed refarming of existing 2G spectrum for 3G service.
Though the unified access service licence allows the operator to use any technology to provide any service including data and multimedia, legacy indicates that spectrum is associated with a type of service: 2G or 3G. Spectrum refarming explicitly disassociates spectrum from technology or service.
Another possibility is cooperative sharing of spectrum between the operators who have spectrum and those who do not. If so, even though there is no policy on spectrum-sharing between network operators, it indicates the birth of secondary spectrum market in India.
This type of sharing can occur between two spectrum holders within the same circles too. The operator that does not have the radio access infrastructure in specific geographical areas within a circle can possibly use the spectrum and the associated infrastructure of an existing operator to provide coverage that again will lead to optimal utilisation of spectrum.
These arrangements can also be construed as roaming, though not precisely. What is notable in both the above cases is that the ministry of communications and IT is yet to take a policy decision on refarming and spectrum-sharing, though it is apparently in the works at DoT to be included in the New Telecom Policy.
Though credit shall be given to the operators for taking these initiatives, without policy directives, the user is not adequately informed and even misinformed. It is time that the much-hyped telecom policy is announced soon, with the above incorporated.