Govt has taken note of fall in revenue due to telecom war: Manoj Sinha
NEW DELHI: The government has taken cognisance of the fall in revenue due to the tariff war among telecom operators triggered by free promotional offers doled out by a new service provider, telecom minister Manoj Sinha said on Wednesday.
Licence fees collected by the government fell to Rs 3,450.1 crore in the quarter ended December 31 from Rs 3,584.04 crore in July-September and Rs 3,975.7 crore in April-June, he told the Rajya Sabha in response to a question on the health of the sector.
Spectrum usage charges dropped to Rs 1,553.2 crore in October-December from Rs 1,820.03 crore in July-September and Rs 1,995.2 crore in AprilJune, the minister said.
Asked if promotional tariffs were governed by guidelines, Sinha said that “promotional offers and the benefits accruing to customers“ need to be restricted to 90 days as per the rules of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. He added that the regulator had floated a consultation paper on regulatory principles of tariff assessment on February 17.
“The regulator may decide to review the guidelinesregulation of view the guidelinesregulation of tariff assessment“ after an analysis of the comments, Sinha said when asked if the government proposed to revisit the guidelines on promotional offers.
The Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body in the Department of Telecommunica tions, had pulled up the regulator in February over the deteriorating health of the sector, citing a ` . 800 crore dip in the revenue of telcos in the October-December period and the resultant fall in licence fees and spectrum usage charges paid to the government.
The commission asked Trai to restrict promotional offers to the mandated 90 days -referring to Reliance Jio Infocomm's ongoing free offers, without identifying the company -and said that stretching such offers was a key reason for the government's revenue loss. Reliance Jio started services in September, offering free voice and data to its customers until March end.
Separately, Sinha said there had been a reduction in call drops after telcos collectively added 3.25 lakh base stations between July 2015 and February 2017 to improve mobile phone coverage.
“Telecom service providers have reported having installed 1,09,000 base stations across the country between July 2015 and May 2016 and an additional 2,16,000 between June 2016 and February 2017,“ Sinha told the Lok Sabha during Question Hour on Wednesday.
Telcos had optimised as many as 4,97,000 base stations since July 2015 to improve overall network performance, he said.
Sinha's disclosures on fewer call drops come as the regulator reportedly finalises revised norms on quality of service aimed at further reducing instances of such failures.
Three proposals the merger of Telenor India with Bharti Airtel, the merger of Vodafone India and subsidiaries with Idea Cellular and the demerger of the wireless telecom businesses of Reliance Communications and RTL and its consolidation with Aircel are at the initial stages and are yet to be approved by the National Company Law Tribunal, Sinha said. There will be “enough competition“ in the market even after consolidation, with six operators expected to remain in each service area.
Licence fees collected by the government fell to Rs 3,450.1 crore in the quarter ended December 31 from Rs 3,584.04 crore in July-September and Rs 3,975.7 crore in April-June, he told the Rajya Sabha in response to a question on the health of the sector.
Spectrum usage charges dropped to Rs 1,553.2 crore in October-December from Rs 1,820.03 crore in July-September and Rs 1,995.2 crore in AprilJune, the minister said.
Asked if promotional tariffs were governed by guidelines, Sinha said that “promotional offers and the benefits accruing to customers“ need to be restricted to 90 days as per the rules of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. He added that the regulator had floated a consultation paper on regulatory principles of tariff assessment on February 17.
“The regulator may decide to review the guidelinesregulation of view the guidelinesregulation of tariff assessment“ after an analysis of the comments, Sinha said when asked if the government proposed to revisit the guidelines on promotional offers.
The Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body in the Department of Telecommunica tions, had pulled up the regulator in February over the deteriorating health of the sector, citing a ` . 800 crore dip in the revenue of telcos in the October-December period and the resultant fall in licence fees and spectrum usage charges paid to the government.
The commission asked Trai to restrict promotional offers to the mandated 90 days -referring to Reliance Jio Infocomm's ongoing free offers, without identifying the company -and said that stretching such offers was a key reason for the government's revenue loss. Reliance Jio started services in September, offering free voice and data to its customers until March end.
Separately, Sinha said there had been a reduction in call drops after telcos collectively added 3.25 lakh base stations between July 2015 and February 2017 to improve mobile phone coverage.
“Telecom service providers have reported having installed 1,09,000 base stations across the country between July 2015 and May 2016 and an additional 2,16,000 between June 2016 and February 2017,“ Sinha told the Lok Sabha during Question Hour on Wednesday.
Telcos had optimised as many as 4,97,000 base stations since July 2015 to improve overall network performance, he said.
Sinha's disclosures on fewer call drops come as the regulator reportedly finalises revised norms on quality of service aimed at further reducing instances of such failures.
Three proposals the merger of Telenor India with Bharti Airtel, the merger of Vodafone India and subsidiaries with Idea Cellular and the demerger of the wireless telecom businesses of Reliance Communications and RTL and its consolidation with Aircel are at the initial stages and are yet to be approved by the National Company Law Tribunal, Sinha said. There will be “enough competition“ in the market even after consolidation, with six operators expected to remain in each service area.
