In just 13 years of wireless telephony, India has moved from a subscriber base of zero to becoming the second largest market in the world after China. India succeeded in ushering in the 'calling party pays' (CPP) regime in 2003 which was barely eight years after the first call from a mobile handset was made.
Simply put, one did not have to pay for incoming calls - a distinction that even China cannot boast of. With monthly additions in excess of eight million subscribers, the story appears to be robust. >From a conservative approach to foreign direct investment (FDI) which was at >49% for a long time, that number has moved in favour of the overseas investor >at 74%. The progress in the sector has been something to be proud of and it is >often viewed as ample testimony to the India growth story. As all this is being spoken of in eloquent terms, the issue of regulation is hard to miss. Even as India is the fastest growing market across the world, the chance that the story is entering a precarious zone can scarcely be overlooked. PROBLEMS APLENTY A growing market brings to the fore its own set of issues. To term the regulatory environment uncertain would perhaps be apt in the current situation. The pressure is being felt on the networks leading to a high level of dissatisfaction among consumers. All that has its origins in the framing of policy and the operators and the government are faced with an unenviable scenario. It starts off with spectrum and the paucity of it. This morphs itself into unacceptable levels of service which often the subscriber has problems with. On the other side is the whole issue of the entry of the MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) and more than a little ambiguity on the guidelines for mergers & acquisitions (M&As). Regulation and its lack of clarity can very well upset the telecom story in India. "Unpredictability of the policy and regulatory framework governing the telecom sector is the biggest challenge for operators - both existing as well as new. This is because there is no defined roadmap or milestones based on which new policy changes will be undertaken," points out Arpita Pal Agrawal, PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) associate director and telecom advisor. Regulatory issues are not unfamiliar territory to India. Take for instance, the existence of two rival technologies in this market - GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). When CDMA was launched in 2002, the dispute on whether limited mobility could be treated as a full-fledged mobile service was unabated. That went in favour of the CDMA lobby and since then, the whole issue of regulation seems to be coupled with uncertainty. The dispute itself dragged on for months. While it was settled amidst some heartburn, it merely laid the foundation for more hiccups along the way. Telco officials point out that the uniqueness about mobile telephony when compared to other sectors comes from two factors - inter-connect and spectrum. "Recognising the specialist nature of this critical sector, and in line with international best practices, the National Telecom Policy (NTP) 99 had chalked out the role of a specialist regulator, a specialist tribunal and the Government as the licensor. Unfortunately, the vision of NTP 99 was thwarted beginning from 2002, and policy aberrations have since been frequent," says Sanjeev Aga, MD, Idea Cellular. A point of view comes in from Alan Hadden, president, Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), who says that mobile communication is ultimately enabled by regulatory policies that directly impact the business in a number of areas. "Investment, indeed sustainable investment, depends on a stable, predictable and transparent regulatory environment," he adds. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Indias_telecom_story_Robust_but_bumpy/articleshow/3478389.cms A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility. - Aristotle --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Kences1" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/kences1?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
