Vodafone Idea expected to unveil revival plan in a month: Telecom secretary

He said DoT is preparing for the next spectrum auction in the second half of FY24, which may include unsold spectrum from previous auctions and new bands. With regard to satellite communication (satcom) services, he said the government should consider legal factors while allocating airwaves, but indicated that if the telecom regulator recommends administrative allocation, the department would consider it. Edited excerpts:

Now that the government has taken equity in Vodafone Idea and Kumar Mangalam Birla is back on the board, are the promoters putting more money into the company? Is the government monitoring the performance of the carrier?

We heard that they are working with banks and financial institutions. Hopefully they’ll get back to us with a revival plan, probably within a month. We keep getting monthly reports on their customer base and other parameters, but we want them to come back with resources — equity and debt — and we await final communication from them. And now that Mr. Birla is back on board, I hope he gets back to us with his plan soon.

Has the government set any condition for taking equity or mandate parameter that Vodafone Idea has to fulfill?

No, our sole objective was to ensure that there are sufficient number of competitors in the market and the company is revived. We look forward to it.

Has the DoT asked them about their 5G plans, especially when rivals launched services seven months ago?

It is directly linked to fundraising, and once that is done, I am sure they will come up with a plan.

Adani Data Networks holds the integrated license, but they are yet to start operations. Has he asked for an extension?

To the best of my knowledge, no letter has been received to this effect. They still have some 3-4 months left, so I would expect them to get back to us if they want a timeline (detail) because in millimeter (mm) wave, although we have plans to use mm-wave There are some news reports of some telcos, I expect the rollout to be a little later as currently the focus of the telcos is on the middle of the 5G band and getting the 5G basic services right. If there is any such proposal (for expansion), we will examine it.

When is the next round of spectrum auction expected? Is there demand for more 5G airwaves?

We already have some unsold spectrum, for example in the 600 MHz band. Apart from this, there are also some candidate bands that can be offered. We are in the final stages of discussion, and we may make a reference to TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) within a month or two. I don’t expect the auction to happen before the first quarter of next year or the last quarter of this year. This will give operators time to complete their rollout and re-evaluate spectrum requirements. 5G is in rollout mode at this point, and we haven’t gotten to a point where there’s more demand in the market, but whatever spectrum we have, we’ll put into the market, whether the market wants it or not.

Should more players enter the Indian market despite the competition and low ARPU?

If you look at the global factors, the technology life cycle is getting shorter – from 4G to 5G – coupled with higher capex requirements and trying to recover it in the shortest possible time. On top of that, we have low ARPU in India, so there is a return on investment issue. This is a systemic market issue with no easy answers. But in spite of that India has the biggest advantage of large market size and still we have room for around three to four players. So, from that point of view, a large scale is expected for these challenges. The government is also considering policy reforms that can further reduce the cost of doing business and create efficient market conditions for market participants. Digital is a key area and it has to offer affordable services to include the unconnected.

Will the government reduce the license fee?

I can’t say that. But in the long term, government policy has to move in the direction of reducing the cost of doing business in any form.

Then why is the government planning to auction the satcom spectrum, which would be a shared resource? In your reference to TRAI, there is no mention of allocation outside auction.

This reference is with TRAI. They will decide on recommendations on methodology, pricing, etc. They are consulting, and I think as always they will come out with very strong recommendations that we can consider. We expect TRAI to finalize the recommendations and send them to us in a few months.

Captive non-public services spectrum on 5G will also be auctioned?

We haven’t picked up the phone yet. TRAI has asked us to identify the spectrum and we are in the process of examining it. Right now the demand for captive spectrum is marginal. Only five companies have applied on the online portal. If one wants to set up, he has three options apart from taking his spectrum. DoT has issued two CNPN (Captive Non-Public Network) licenses to National Capital Region Transport Corporation Limited and DP Jain & Company Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. so far.

The demand is for administrative allocation instead of auction.

There are legal aspects to this. For the same service, whether you can give by administrative allocation, it is not a matter of investigation. The committee is probing it, but we have not taken any decision yet.

When is the new Telecom Bill expected to become law? Will the issues of OTT regulation and broadcasting be resolved under the ambit of a single law?

The Communications Minister has already said that it is scheduled for the monsoon session (of Parliament), and we are working in that direction. The consultations are over. We all have ideas. Now we will come up with a formula which will be taken to the Parliament. OTT is likely to be under light touch licensing, which is expected to be clarified in the regulations. The Act provides for broad umbrella coverage for all services and the right to regulate the market in certain ways. But how each sub-sector will be regulated will be elaborated through regulations and rules. We will take into account all the presentations made by the market, and we will do what is best for the citizens and the market in the long run.

Emerging issues in Indian tower industry, does it raise any red flags for government intervention?

The infrastructure industry in India is a milestone; This is far ahead of other countries where shared infrastructure can be rented by any operator. We believe that this industry needs to be further strengthened, hence we have sent a reference to TRAI to bring active elements like Radio Access Network, Light Optic Fiber etc. into infrastructure license.

Has the issue of non-availability of 5G at airports been resolved with the Ministry of Civil Aviation?

We have written to them. They have referred the matter to Boeing, Airbus and other aircraft manufacturers to check whether whatever we have proposed is acceptable to the aircraft manufacturers. One way to do this is to take live readings of aircraft in flight and check if there is anything wrong with the altimeter. We need to do some field studies. A committee consisting of members from DoT and MCA (Ministry of Corporate Affairs) has been constituted for technical solution. They are yet to take the final decision.

Vodafone Idea has given a contract to ZTE. Is the government reconsidering the list of trusted sources of telecom equipment?

We know about the contract. We are consulting the NSCS, as it is under the reliable source regime. We have sought a report from him. We are looking at how the framework works, and the manner in which it should be implemented as the regime is also about two-three years old. We are trying to see whether further reforms should be made in consultation with the NSCS.

Is the government ready to revisit SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) levels to improve the quality of services in 5G?

At present, India’s standards are one-tenth of the world standards, there is no reason for any concern. We have set up a committee which is looking into but it will take some 6-12 months as bodies like WHO and ICNRP (International Commission on Non-ionizing Radiation Protection) will have to be consulted. Whatever we do has to be evidence based.

On Quality of Service (QoS), we have asked TRAI to examine upgradation of their regulations on Quality of Service. QoS is a function of various parameters, including fiberization of towers, availability of spectrum to telcos, cell density, etc.; DoT is working on fiberisation of towers, making more spectrum available, and easing RoW (right of way) policies so that all telcos can connect all mobile towers through optic fibre. TRAI and DoT will work together to ensure robust QoS norms.