By Megha Bahree and Amol Sharma
Kapil Sibal, minister of Communications and Information Technology, recently sat down with The Wall Street Journal for a conversation on how he's planning to reshape India's telecom sector. Here are some highlights:
On whether there too much competition in telecoms and too little spectrum:
“There was a time when the price of a telephone call was 90 rupees,” said Mr. Sibal. “Now it's 50-60 paise.” He said that India offered a vast market and he would ensure that there was sufficient spectrum available, so telecom operators should have nothing to worry about. But, he added, the telecom operators should also realize that ultimately technology has to be accessible and affordable to the consumer even as operators get a return on their investments.
On what technology standard for mobile would be adopted in the future:
"We must move toward a technology neutral regime, in which the licensee is entitled to use any technology he wants,” he said. “We must move toward convergence." Under the new policy, a licensee will be entitled to use CDMA and GSM, 2G, 3G, data and voice—or a combination of his choice. "The licensee should be able to tailor-make his business to the needs of the consumer," he said.
On the future of the 2G licenses that had been issued:
Mr. Sibal said some 124 licenses had been issued and he didn’t know what would be “the fate of those licenses.” One possible outcome was that some of the licenses would be revoked. Another was that some spectrum would be freed up if people didn’t roll out services in time. “We are waiting for the Supreme Court to make a judicial determination,” he said. “Whatever the result of that litigation is, we're committed to move toward the environment I'm talking about." [...]
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