DoT set to submit spectrum policy for cabinet nod

New Delhi: The department of telecommunications will seek cabinet approval for the spectrum sharing and trading policy by the end of June, communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Tuesday.

“We have received the final recommendations from Trai (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India), and the department is looking into them,” Prasad told reporters. The Telecom Commission, the department’s highest decision-making body, will meet on 11 June to finalize the policy before forwarding it to the minister for submission to the cabinet.

On 21 May, the telecom regulator submitted clarifications to earlier recommendations on spectrum-trading guidelines made on 28 January 2014 and on spectrum-sharing guidelines made on 21 July. The telecom department sought clarification and reconsideration on some of the recommendations on 27 April, on which the telecom regulator has largely reiterated its earlier stand.

The need for a spectrum trading and sharing policy tops the list of demands of the industry, which argues that such a move will improve the efficiency of spectrum, a scarce resource in the country, for communications services. Spectrum trading allows a telecom firm to buy or sell spectrum while spectrum sharing lets them pool the resource to use it more efficiently. Larger blocks of spectrum have far more capacity than smaller pieces.

Meanwhile, state-run telcom firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will launch free national roaming by 15 June in a bid to attract more subscribers, Prasad said at a briefing on the achievements of the ministry of communications and information technology over the last year.

“BSNL and MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd) have started a number of initiatives to return to profitability,” Prasad said. For BSNL, these initiatives include the commissioning of 15,000 towers across the country to improve the quality of service, 2,500 Wi-Fi hotspots and 100 free Wi-Fi hotspots at important tourist locations. Both firms are installing next-generation networks to replace their 30-year-old existing network, replacing 432 exchanges and 7 million telephone lines. Both already offer free calls at night.

Other achievements of the ministry include an increase in rural subscriber base by 4.5 percentage points to 48.9%, the fastest in three years, and an unprecedented 52% increase in the number of broadband subscribers, Prasad said. Foreign direct investment was also the highest in the last three years at ₹ 2,853 crore.

The postal department also made some progress over the year, marking the government’s first year, especially in its move to open a payments bank. “We expect the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) to give the payments bank licence by July-August,” Prasad said. Parcel revenue rose 37% in the last year, after a 2 percentage point fall in the previous year. Cash on delivery is now a ₹ 500 crore business for the postal department and Speed Post revenue grew 7.4% to ₹ 1,470 crore. Of the 154,000 post offices in the country, 27,215 have been connected to a digital network and the government is working on a proposal to convert all post offices into common service centres where customers will be able to access important government records.

Prasad said his ministry is in talks with Apollo Hospitals to connect its doctors with citizens across the country through common service centres.

Interestingly, the government is working on a proposal to create 48,000 seats in rural business process outsourcing firms, including 5,000 in north-eastern states. It is looking at giving a subsidy of ₹ 1 lakh per seat.

On Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” initiative, Prasad said the communications ministry has received 63 proposals worth ₹ 20,825 crore for a Modified Special Incentive package to manufacture in India. Of these, 40 proposals worth ₹ 9,565 crore have been approved, as against eight proposals worth ₹ 1,152 crore in the previous year. These proposals have come from a number of firms, including Samsung India, Bosch and Motherson Sumi.

However, on the fab production policy, a proposal to build semiconductor fabrication manufacturing units in the country, the minister said there were some delays. “It needs huge investment and they are working out the finances. It will happen,” Prasad said. Semiconductors are needed for processors at the heart of electronics goods.