Surprise support from Trai chief for telcos' 3G roaming pacts

Telecom companies’ contentious 3G roaming pacts have got support from an unexpected quarter.

The chief of the sector regulator yesterday said that in a situation where there is no more spectrum available, it may not be possible to continue with a regime where pacts for intra-circle roaming (ICR) in 3G services are not allowed.

“This is a Catch-22 situation. How is it (closing down ICR) a solution?” Khullar has been cited as asking in a report in the Economic Times.

In the 2010 auctions of 3G spectrum, Bharti, Vodafone and Idea got spectrum for this high-end service in 13, 9 and 11 circles, respectively. But soon after, they entered into roaming agreements among themselves which allowed them to share infrastructure and spectrum and provide 3G services in circles they did not get a licence for.

Meanwhile, BSNL had got licence for 20 circles by paying Rs 10,186 crore. DoT later intervened and banned the 3G roaming pacts among the private players and slapped penalty of Rs 50 crore per circle where they were providing 3G services under the pact.

Telcos have moved the Supreme Court against DoT’s decision and the case is being fought there.

While DoT’s contention has been that such pacts undermined the objective of the spectrum auction, the companies are of the view that the service will be viable only with such pacts.

The department alleged that Bharti Airtel has been acting as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) by using these pacts .

MVNOs are those operators that do not own spectrum but get it on lease from others owning it. Virgin Mobile is an example. Such companies are not allowed in India as guidelines here do not allow trading in spectrum.

Interestingly, the Trai chief is also supporting such arrangements among telecos.

According to Khullar Indian law treats spectrum as a holy cow for some reason.

“I can understand that you don’t want to cap gains on assigned spectrum which is administratively allocated. But if everyone is buying spectrum on auction, why not permit trade in it? These are issues on which the government should no longer brook any further delay. A decision needs to be taken,” he told CNBC-TV18 in an interview yesterday.

So will things take a turn for the better for telcos and customers finally? It is too early to predict as the court case is currently one. But yes, there seems to be a change in attitude at least in Trai.