It’s just been over two months since R S Sharma was appointed as the Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India but he is already taking up the cudgels on behalf of customers. One of the first things he has undertaken is to ensure telecom companies deal with the issue of frequent call drops by investing in a network that is robust enough to carry all data and voice traffic. This has faced opposition from telecom companies who are faced with their own set of problems including lack of adequate tower sites and increasing costs in the form of spectrum.

In an interview with BusinessLine , Sharma, explains TRAI’s stand and how he plans to ensure that Indian mobile users get top class services. Edited excerpts:

As the TRAI’s new Chairman what is on your immediate agenda?

There are issues related to spectrum availability and licensing, which needs strengthening. Quality of service is a major issue. New services are coming and we need to make sure that the quality is world class. As the regulator we have to take care of the weakest section — the consumers – as they are the ones who do not have a voice. They are standing up against a large industry. For the benefit of consumers, we are making the whole system more transparent. We are talking of quality of service maps that will allow users a geographic information system kind of map so that they will know network capacity of an operator in a region and which operator has the best quality. This will help users pick the right operator.  Regulators in other countries such as the UK are doing this. 

The paper on quality of service seems to suggest that you have already made up your mind. True? 

There is clearly a deficiency of service so on that there is no doubt. We have proposed that users be compensated but we have not taken a final view on this and have asked the stakeholders to give their response.

Will you change the way data for quality of service norm is collected?

I am looking at ways to make data collection more automated. Survey should be done on mobile systems and calls will be made to users via call centres to check quality of service. We want to employ more technology to make quality of service measurement scientific. 

On one hand, there is pressure on telcos to roll out world class networks but on the other they are subjected to very high levies and taxes. Should they be given some relaxation?

Everyone including me will like taxes to be reduced. It is desirable that the levies are comparable to global standards. However, the government levy tax to carry out development work. Maybe, because of a higher tax consumers will pay more. That's the only thing that happens – it impacts affordability. Operators are not paying from their pocket. Ultimately it’s the consumers who are paying. 

So there is no link between high levies and telcos ability to invest in networks? 

It is the duty of the telecom companies to invest in technology and towers. You can't use taxes and levies as an excuse to not invest in networks.  Spectrum is just three per cent of the operator’s cost; so these are just alibis. Tariffs are under forbearance and they are free to fix a rate that recovers their costs. They could have complained if I had asked to offer services at a specific rate. 

Your predecessors have been pushing the government to give TRAI more power, especially to punish violators. Will you pursue this?

 Whatever powers we already have we should be able to utilise that power. We need to increase capacity of TRAI. Training and skilling our staff on new issues has to be done on a regular basis. 

 

Have you taken a view on net neutrality?

We are analysing all the responses and we will take it forward . 

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