Government initiatives have played a key role in facilitating telecom growth in India. However, lately, the sector has been facing several policy and regulatory challenges. The National Telecom Policy, 2012 (NTP 2012) is likely to address most of these issues while offering clarity in areas such as spectrum allocation, spectrum trading and sharing, and mergers and acquisitions. Dr Kruparani Killi, minister of state for communications and information technology, Government of India, shares her views on the sector’s growth, the government’s role in addressing key challenges and the way forward.

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How has the Indian telecom landscape evolved over the past one year?

The Indian telecom network, with 910.15 million telephone connections as of November 2013, is the second largest in the world after China. Of these, 363.55 million are in rural areas and 546.6 million in urban areas. The share of rural telephones increased from 37.3 per cent at the end of November 2012 to 39.94 per cent by the end of November 2013. Meanwhile, the preference for mobile telephony continues with the share of wireless telephones increasing from 96.65 per cent to 96.81 per cent during the same period. Further, the share of the private sector, in terms of telephone connections, increased from 85.91 per cent to 86.32 per cent. The overall rural and urban teledensity stood at 73.69 per cent, 42.48 per cent and 144.14 per cent respectively at end-November 2013.

What has been the progress in the implementation of the NTP, 2012? What are the key milestones achieved on the policy front?

The NTP, 2012 envisages the transformation of the country’s socio-economic scenario through accelerated, equitable and inclusive growth by laying special emphasis on providing affordable and quality telecom services in rural and remote areas, and bridging the digital divide. Substantial progress has been made in the implementation of the provisions of the NTP, 2012. The status of some of these initiatives is highlighted below:

•The government is promoting infrastructure sharing. As of November 2013, 7,317 towers had been rolled out under the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund scheme, wherein each tower is shared by three service providers. Further, 16,254 base transceiver stations (BTSs) were commissioned by operators at these tower sites (as of August 2013). Another scheme to extend financial support from the USO Fund for providing mobile services in inhabited uncovered villages has been proposed. Further, to improve connectivity in the north-eastern region, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has decided to implement a comprehensive plan based on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) recommendations. The government has also approved a Rs 30.46 billion scheme to install towers at 2,199 locations affected by extremism. In addition, a scheme to provide mobile phones to rural households is on the anvil.

•Guidelines for preferential market access to domestically manufactured telecom products for government procurement have been issued. M&A guidelines have been finalised and regulations on spectrum sharing are under preparation.

•The unified licence regime has been put in place, under which spectrum has been delinked from the licence.

•TRAI has given its recommendations on full mobile number portability (MNP). In June 2013, the authority had also issued a tariff order for the reduction of roaming charges.

•A policy mandating the testing of new handsets for specific absorption rate compliance is being finalised. Meanwhile, show-cause notices  have been issued to tower companies that were not complying with BTS radiation norms.

•The government has raised the foreign direct investment limit for the sector from 74 per cent to 100 per cent to make the market investor friendly, as well as facilitate consolidation among licensees and raise funds.

•To address security concerns related to telecom networks, a centralised monitoring system will be set up at an estimated cost of Rs 4 billion. The system will automate the process of lawful interception and monitoring.

What is your view on the current regulatory environment in the telecom sector?

The regulatory mechanism in the country has been established with a view to take care of the interests of various stakeholders such as customers and service providers. TRAI was formed under the TRAI Act, 1997, to protect consumer interest and nurture conditions for the growth of telecom services in a manner and at a pace that would enable India to play a leading role in the emerging global information society. Further, the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal was established in 2000 under the TRAI Act to settle and adjudicate disputes involving licensors and licensees, between service providers, and between a group of consumers and service providers.

Currently, a review of all the provisions of the act is under way to address regulatory inadequacies/impediments. A detailed proposal in this regard has been received from TRAI and various divisions of DoT have also expressed their views on the proposed amendment. A draft cabinet note was circulated for inter ministerial consultations and DoT has received comments from all consulting ministries as well as departments.

What will be the key drivers for the uptake of broadband services in the country?

Some of the key drivers for broadband uptake are the creation of adequate infrastructure; affordable tariffs; availability of appropriate user devices, relevant content and applications in local languages; digital literacy; spectrum availability; and digitisation of cable TV networks.

DoT, in collaboration with the USO Fund, has adopted a two-pronged strategy for providing broadband services to the end-user as well as augmenting optic fibre cable (OFC) infrastructure for carrying broadband traffic from rural areas to the core network. To this end, the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project will connect 250,000 gram panchayats in the country using the OFC networks of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), RailTel and the Power Grid Corporation of India, and laying incremental fibre wherever necessary. Non-discriminatory access to the network will be provided to all categories of service providers and various applications for e-health, e-education, e-governance, etc., will be launched. In October 2012, three pilot projects were completed to cover all gram panchayats in the Arain block in Ajmer district (Rajasthan), Panisagar block in North Tripura district (Tripura) and Paravada block in Visakhapatnam district (Andhra Pradesh). Over 195 institutions in these locations have been connected and devices have been provided under the aegis of the National Governance project. Further, tripartite MoUs for free right of way (RoW) have been signed with all states and union territories except Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Lakshadweep and Chandigarh. The NOFN roll-out is likely to be undertaken in three phases with Phase I covering 100,000 panchayats by end-March 2014, another 100,000 under Phase II by March 2015 and 50,000 under Phase III by September 2015.

Further, in January 2009, the USO Fund had signed an agreement with BSNL under the Rural Wireline Broadband Scheme to provide wireline broadband connectivity to rural and remote areas. As of October 31, 2013, about 547,328 broadband connections had been provided and 12,784 kiosks set up.

What steps are being undertaken to address spectrum-related issues?

The NTP 2012 aims to provide an additional 300 MHz of spectrum for IMT services by 2017 and another 200 MHz by 2020. In this regard, the government conducted three rounds of spectrum auctions between November 2012 and February 2014, wherein it has sold airwaves in the 800 MHz, 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands.

What are the government’s priorities for the telecom sector?

The government is looking at maximising benefits for the public by making available affordable, reliable and secure telecom and broadband services to citizens. The government’s short-, medium- and long-term priorities for the sector are as follows:

•Create a “One Nation, One Licence” regime across services and service areas, achieve “One Nation, Full MNP” and establish “One Nation, Free Roaming”.

•Increase rural teledensity from the current level of 39 per cent to 70 per cent by 2017 and 100 per cent by 2020.

•Provide affordable and reliable broadband-on-demand services by 2015 and achieve 175 million broadband connections by 2017 and 600 million by 2020 at a minimum download speed of 2 Mbps and higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps on demand.

•Provide high speed and high quality broadband access to all village panchayats through a combination of technologies in 2014, and to all villages and habitations by 2020.

•Recognise telecom as an infrastructure sector to realise the true potential of information and communication technology for development.

•Address RoW issues in setting up telecom infrastructure. Mandate an ecosystem to establish a common platform for interconnecting various networks in order to provide non-exclusive and non-discriminatory access.

•Adopt a green policy in telecom and incentivise the use of renewable resources for sustainability.

•Achieve substantial transition to new internet protocol (IPv6) in a phased and time-bound manner by 2020, and encourage an ecosystem for the provision of a large bouquet of services on the IP platform.

What are some of the trends that the Indian telecom sector is likely to witness in 2014?

In the past few years, the Indian telecom sector has witnessed a revolution in the voice telephony segment. Now, it is time to replicate this success story in the data services segment. The internet is likely to evolve from the “internet of people” to the “internet of things”, with greater focus on machine-to-machine communication. Further, rural teledensity, which has been much lower than urban teledensity, has shown an increasing trend. The share of rural telephones is growing consistently.