Spectrum Wars Or

Looting The Exchequer?

Prabir Purkayastha

The spectrum wars have got curious and curiouser. The
Department of Telecom and the minister have tied themselves in knots on how to
allocate new licenses and spectrum. Having talked of a first-come first-served
system, the date of first-come is now being changed. To make it worse, Reliance
Infocomm, who it might be remembered received a mobile license after violating
its WLL license, has jumped the queue of 575 new license applicants and secured
GSM license and additional spectrum on the specious plea that as they have a
CDMA license, they should be given a cross-over license for GSM. In the battle
between the CDMA and GSM operators, a lot of skeletons in the closet have come
tumbling out, as each side exposes what the other side has done. Missing in all
the spectrum wars is the consumer, with the prime minister also talking of how
the telecom sector can help in filling the national exchequer.

What is spectrum and why is it
important for mobile telephony? Wireless signals need frequency bands which it
utilises for transferring information. Any wireless signal can be made to carry
information – the radio stations use certain frequencies to bring us voice
broadcasts that we can listen to by tuning into those frequencies. The mobile
telephony also uses wireless signals and does this tuning transparently for us.
But behind the voice we hear in our mobile handset, is a wireless network that
uses radio waves to transmit the voice. That is why turning the mobile handset
to an FM radio is quite simple.

The problem of using the wireless
frequencies or the frequency spectrum is that only a part of the total frequency
spectrum can be used for mobile telephony. The international body, ITU decides
the frequency band that is to be used for different services. If we want the
hand sets and the switching equipment to be kept as global standards, we need to
also allocate the same frequencies here for similar services. That means that
there is limited spectrum available for any service – it is not an unlimited
resource that can be given to anybody and everybody.

The question of spectrum was not
important when the mobile services started in the country. The initial licenses
that were given had the spectrum – called the start-up spectrum – bundled with
it. The initial metro licenses were given away virtually at a pittance. The
market value of these licenses are astronomical today.

GREAT LOSS TO EXCHEQUER

In the next round, the licenses
again had the start-up frequency bundled with it. It was also mandated that all
mobile services should be based on GSM technology. Though large license fees
were promised, after securing the license, the private players all wriggled out
of paying the license fees and went into a revenue sharing arrangement, courtesy
the NDA government ruling then. The loss to the exchequer was of the order of Rs
40,000 crore. After the change to a revenue sharing regime, the freebies for the
GSM operators did not stop. From the initial 4.4 MHz of start-up frequency, they
now hold about 10 MHz each without paying any extra spectrum fees.

The initial mobile rates were kept
artificially very high, even though the license fees were now no longer there
and the capital cost per line was a fraction of the cost of installing
landlines. There was virtually no license fee, no spectrum fee and only some
money to be paid to the exchequer as a revenue share; this was cushy times for
the GSM operators, who raked in the money with high call rates. It was only
after the public sector players BSNL and MTNL were allowed to provide and other
operators coming in with Wireless in the local loop (WLL) did costs for mobile
services come down. It was at this time CDMA technology was also accepted and
CDMA licenses were also issued. This led to the explosive growth of telecom we
are seeing today. Before the government and the private operators claim the
credit for this, the history of cartels, high call rates and a compliant TRAI
must also be remembered.

DoT’s role is supposed to be one of
setting the policy, while administering the license is TRAI’s responsibility.
TRAI however has taken very little interest in enforcing license terms and
conditions, which have been openly flouted by private operators. One such
violation is not providing rural land lines as decreed under the license for
basic services. The other is violating the long distance call rates by routing
such calls to a local number and then pretending this to be a local call.
Reliance has been caught on this and has got off with a rap on the knuckles.
Similarly, Reliance also violated its WLL license to provide mobile services,
for which it was again given a light penalty. However, administering the license
is TRAI’s job, even though the minister and the Department of Telecom routinely
claim it is their sphere.

INCREASING COST TO SUBSCRIBER

The current controversy is
regarding new licenses and award of spectrum for the new entrants as well as the
existing operators. Both TRAI and also the prime minister have expressed that
there should be no restriction on new entrants. From what the PM has said, it
also appears that he is in favour of an auction in allocating both the spectrum
and new licences.

The problem here is that mobile
voice services have seen an explosive growth only because the call rates have
been brought down drastically. If we auction the spectrum and the licenses, we
would increase the cost to the subscriber as it will be recovered from the
subscriber through higher call charges. As the spectrum is a finite resource, an
unlimited number of licences with fixed license fees would lead to a problem of
how to allocate a limited bandwidth to any number of players. .

It is this issue that has the
ministry tied up completely in knots. They want any number of operators, do not
want to auction the license or the spectrum. So what could be the mechanism? The
ministry has some criteria of ‘first come first served’ basis of giving
licenses. Apart from being an extremely poor way of giving out limited
resources, the ministry has further compounded it by letting Reliance Infocomm
not only jump the queue by offering it a “cross-over” license but also free
spectrum. If the rest of the licenses are given now on a ‘first come first
served’ basis, this would lead to real esate developers (Parsnath Builders, DLF)
and stock broking companies (India Bulls) also securing telecom licenses,
presumably for the purpose of re-selling their licenses (or their companies). A
number of the 575 companies in the license queue are known to be dummy
corporations, and the purpose is to make windfall profits by securing the
licenses and later selling them at a high price. In other words, this would mean
the subsidy in 2G of keeping the license fee and spectrum costs low would
actually go not to the subscribers but to those entities who resell these at
high prices. Or to companies such as Reliance, who are allowed entry into the
GSM sector with again a double subsidy – jumping the queue and free start-up
spectrum.

NEED FOR STRONG REGULATION

The GSM operators, who have been
screaming blue murder at all these shenanigans, are also hiding the fact that
they are either hoarding spectrum or making very inefficient use of it. Their
spectrum utilisation is way below comparable global standards. The dropped
calls, and frequent saturation of the network is due to not investing in more
cells and other network equipment. What they hope is that if the CDMA operators,
so close to the heart of the telecom ministry, is given various concessions, if
they make enough noise, the telecom ministry will buy them off also with some
further concessions.

If we take the issue of keeping GSM
and CDMA costs low for the subscriber for the 2G segment, and not allow this
intended subsidy to generate windfall profits for the license holder, then the
regulatory regime that needs to be put in place will require to be much
stronger. Otherwise, any scheme that does not choose the auction route will lead
to inevitably windfall profits for the promoters of these telecom companies at
the expense of the public exchequer and the subscribers. The current model that
the minister is favouring including the cross over license to Reliance Infocomm
is the worst of both worlds. It keeps the entry cost and the spectrum cost low
while allowing huge speculative gains to be made by the promoters who receive
such licenses. Neither is the PMO’s argument of unrestricted entry and auction
appropriate for 2G as this would inevitably jack up the call rates for the
subscriber.

The regulator should be given a
mandate to work out the economic value of the spectrum and how it can be indexed
to rising revenues. Instead of a one time fee, the spectrum price can be
calibrated to the profits and revenues that these companies would be making. The
TRAI should also work out strict norms and market restrictions for transfer of
shares or mergers/acquisition of these companies. The spectrum that the
companies have received gratis, needs to be costed and this cost realised for
the future. Otherwise, this is a “hidden” asset for existing license holders.  

A 2G spectrum cost should be set by
TRAI and any allocation should be based on criteria that TRAI should fix taking
into account the cost of the spectrum and the efficiency of its utilisation. In
no case should additional spectrum be given to existing operators without
fulfilling this criteria and paying the additional spectrum charges. It is
unfortunate that existing GSM mobile players have been given additional spectrum
free, when it is not only a limited resource but has obvious market value. A
proper enquiry should be conducted on who was responsible for giving away
spectrum free. Those who have got the spectrum free should either vacate this or
be asked to pay its price. No hoarding of spectrum should be allowed.

The government’s decision to allow
Reliance to jump the queue for GSM services and give it free spectrum is further
loot of public resources. The government seems going out of the way to favour
CDMA players now after having favoured the GSM players earlier. As far the
public is concerned, both set of favours are at the expense of the public and
this mode of giving away spectrum free is nothing but allowing the continued
loot of the exchequer.

Arguments are being advanced that
BSNL and MTNL should also be charged for license fees as spectrum. It may be
noted that it was only the introduction of BSNL and MTNL into mobile services
that brought cellular rates down. Therefore, a public carrier which prevents
collusion and therefore controls the tariffs is a must in the current
environment. When the ADC rates were brought down by TRAI, the consequent
benefits were not passed on to the subscribers, and the long distance call rates
were actually increased. In the past, a number of cases of collusion and
artificial rate setting has been used the cellular operators. Therefore, the
spectrum and licenses given to BSNL and MTNL should continue in order to promote
public good and curb profiteering.