Telcos to face disincentives if call drops persist, says Prasad

New Delhi: In the backdrop of frequent call drops faced by consumers, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said the government is exploring the possibility of bringing in disincentives for telecom operators to counter the issue.[caption id=“attachment_2195099” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. Image Courtesy PIB[/caption] Stating that telecom operators need to ensure that call drops are “minimised”, the minister said telcos need to strengthen their system. “Call drops need to be minimised. They (private operators) need to reinforce their mechanism. I have directed officials in the department to work on a disincentive architecture (for the operators),” Prasad said during a press conference on completion of one year of NDA government. The minister added that in his role, he is responsible for ensuring that consumer interest is kept in mind. Telecom secretary Rakesh Garg has asked the member (technology) in Department of Telecom (DoT) to work on the matter and if required, it will be sent to sectoral regulator Trai for its suggestions. A final call could be taken in six months. Explaining further, Garg cited the example of a telecom operator which is offering free calls in lieu of call drops. Meanwhile, on net neutrality, Prasad said the government has received the report and it will be uploaded on DoT’s website in next few days. “We have received the report, it will put on the website in a few days and a copy has been sent to TRAI. As far as the final decision is concerned, the government and cabinet will take the final call,” the minister said. There is a huge debate going on in the country over net neutrality, which states that no content should be given preference over the other. The minister said spectrum trading and sharing guidelines will be sent to cabinet by the end of this month. On post offices offering banking services, Prasad said he is expecting RBI approval for payment bank licence for Postal Department to come in by July-August. Regarding the spectrum sharing and trading guidelines, Prasad said they will be send to cabinet by the end of this month. The Telecom Commission will discuss the guidelines in its meeting on 11 June and after that the cabinet will take the final call. On the application of Postal Department for a payment bank licence, the minister said approval from the RBI is expected by July or August. On a query on Net neutrality, Prasad said the telecom department panel which was set up to look into the issue has submitted its report and it will be made public in a few days. “Yes, they (the panel) have submitted the report to me. In few days time, the report will be put on the website, you can see and access it. I have asked the Secretary to send a copy to Trai, so that they can also have a look at it,” Prasad said. On a query about CAG’s observations that undue benefits were accrued to telecom operators, the Minister said the issues pertains to the time of the earlier government and the matter is now in front of the parliamentary committee and whatever it decides, the government will accept that. About the Opposition’s assertion that not all the money from spectrum auction has been received by the government, Prasad said, “I can’t expect a better query from people who were parading zero loss theory, that zero loss theory has been exploded…since they have nothing else to offer in the wake of fair auction, be it coal or spectrum, therefore this question has been raised which has no foundation.” He added the government has already received about Rs 30,000 crore from the spectrum auction. On funding problems faced by the two proposed semiconductor fabs, Prasad said, “My department people are in constant touch with them and both of them have assured us that they are working out their funding pattern and I know because fab manufacturing requires big capital infusion but they have assured us and we are taking their assurance seriously.” The Union cabinet had accorded approval for establishing two fab manufacturing facilities by two consortia – one led by Jaiprakash Associates Ltd along with IBM (USA) and Tower Jazz (Israel) and the other led by HSMC Technologies India Pvt. Prasad said telephone connections crossed 100 crore in April 2015, the fastest increase in the last 11 months as compared to the previous three years raising national teledensity to 79.85 as against 75.23 in March 2014, 73.32 in March 2013 and 78.6 in March 2012. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow in the telecom sector touched $2,853 million in 2014-15 (upto February 2015), he said. Talking about the postal department, the minister said speed post revenue grew to Rs 1,470 crore in 2014-15 from Rs 1,369 crore in the previous year whereas parcel revenue growth which had dipped to -2 percent in 2013-14, registered a robust growth of 37 per cent in 2014-15. PTI