NASSCOM has pushed for a one nation one licence for the telecommunications industry and the lowering of entry barriers, as a number of tech firms eye foray into the Indian telecom space. This was in response to the consultation process initiated by the Department of Telecommunications, regarding the need to devise a new legal framework governing telecommunications in India.
NASSCOM, the apex tech body for India that represents key members including Tata, Tech Mahindra and other IT majors, is seeking simpler regulations for tech companies looking to compete with traditional telecom operators in the 5G private network space.
As the government deliberates on the introduction of a new telecom bill (one of the four bills it seeks to introduce to regulate digital tech space), NASSCOM has made submissions to the Ministry asking the government to open the highly regulated market. One of the key requests made on these lines is to open the market by recognising, “one India, one circle” across the board. At present, India is divided into 22 telecom circles (22 separate geographies), where operators have to purchase spectrum and universal access service licence in each circle in order to provide telecommunications services.
To reduce regulatory effort
Therefore, under the present framework, even companies seeking to provide enterprise services restricted to minimal areas within a circle, have to buy spectrum for that circle and apply for a UASL licence for it. Take for instance Adani, which has bought spectrum in six circles and applied for a UASL licence within these six circles. As per experts, a ‘one India, one circle’ recognition will reduce the regulatory efforts, which far outweigh the returns for non-public network operators.
Other suggestions made by NASSCOM, with the intention to reduce entry barriers include – asking a shift away from licensing an individual service provider by default and introducing a risk-based approach to licensing and regulation. This will reduce the barrier of entry massively as presently operators have to pay a 3 per cent licence fee on the revenues accrued by them, which will encourage further competition in the space by incentivising more enterprises to enter.
Removing barriers
The core logic behind the licensing regime was to ensure only serious players enter the telephony space, especially as they were purchasing spectrum which is a scarce commodity. “However, presently spectrum is not as scarce and market dynamics, including the price of the spectrum itself, can weed out non-serious player, present licensing conditions only serve as barriers to enter the market,” an expert told BusinessLine. On the same theme, NASSCOM has also asked the government to rationalise licensing conditions that serve as barriers to market entry.
Communication to TRAI, DoT
NASSCOM has been a key voice in opposing telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea- which want to keep enterprises out of the burgeoning enterprise market in 5G. BusinessLine has previously reported that NASSCOM had also requested the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to set aside some unlicensed spectrum specifically for private network purposes. NASSCOM has also requested DoT to follow up their paper with a detailed consultation paper and consultation process similar to the one by TRAI.