TelecomLive April-2020

Bypassing licensing regime, unfairly www.telecomlive.com 19 Telecom LIVE April 2020 WiMAX, Wi-Fi, IPTV, IPv6 etc. as recognized by TEC a n d s u b j e c t t o modifications / adapta- tion, if any, as may be pr e s c r i bed by TEC / Licensor from time to time. c) should be bounded by the terms and conditions of IP-I registration as well as instructions issued by the Licensor and by such orders / directions / regulations of Trai issued as per the provisions of the TRAI Act, 1997, as amended from time to time. d) should, wherever applica- ble as per the scope of the IP-I registration, with necessary adaptations a n d mo d i f i c a t i o n s , comply with the norms stipulated in the Unified Licence under the heads of Electromagnetic Field exposure by BTS (Base Stations), Sharing of Infrastructure, Confiden- tiality of Information and Security Conditions. However, the IP-I registration holder should not be eligible to apply for and assignment of any kind of licensed spec- trum. 7. The IP-I registrationholder: a) should be permitted to own, establish, maintain and work infrastructure items, equipment and systems, so permitted under its scope, using any technology as per the prescribed standards. b) should utilize type of equipment and products that meet TEC standards, wherever made manda- tory by the Licensor from t ime t o t ime . In t he absence of mandatory TEC standards, the IP-I registration holder should be permitted to utilize only those equipment and products which meet the relevant standards set by International standard- ization bodies, such as, ITU, ETSI, IEEE, ISO, IEC etc. or set by Interna- tional Fora, such as 3GPP, 3GPP-2 , IETF , MEF , criminatorymanner. 5. The expanded scope of the IP- I Registration should not include: a) P r o v i d i n g a c c e s s t o inf ras t ruc ture i t ems , equipment and systems to any customer other than t h e e l i g i b l e s e r v i c e providers. b) Provisioning of end-to- end bandwidth using transmission systems to any customer other than t h e e l i g i b l e s e r v i c e providers. c) U s e o f t h e l i c e n s e d spectrum, assigned to an eligible service provider, f o r p r o v i s i o n i n g o f wireless telecommunica- tion services to other eligible service providers. 6. The IP-I registration holder should be eligible to apply for and issue of licence under the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933 to possess such wireless telegraphy apparatus that is permitted under the scope of IP-I Registration. and MWB spectrum. The National Digital Communi- cations Policy (NDCP-2018) envisages encouraging and facilitating sharing of active infrastructure by enhancing the scope of Infrastructure Providers and promoting and incentivizing deployment of common sharable, passive as well as active, infra- structure. However, nowhere it says that the they be given everything for free by disturbing level playing field viz-a-viz other operators who pay huge spectrum charges, license fee and bought spectrum in open auction. On August 16, 2019, Trai suo- motu issued a consultation paper titled “Review of Scope of Infra- structure Providers Category-I (IP-I) Registration” and sought the views of stakeholders. The comments from 26 stakeholders and counter-comments from three stakeholders were received. An Open House Discussion was conducted on November 14, 2019 in Delhi. Finally, disregarding the NDCP-2018 mandate, Trai on March 13, 2020 submitted its recommendations to DoT snatch- ing away most of the creamy services from the TSPs and gifting them away to IP-I, for free. The enhancement proposed to be given to IP-I licensees are unfair. With a payment of mere Rs 5,000 they will completely destabilize the enterprise business of telcos and adversely affect 5G auctions. The principles of level playing field demand that they pay license fees because they will do everything that a TSP does barring providing service to the end consumer. Barring licensed spectrum, they get every element of the telecom business. when they get licensed / regis- tered with DoT. Trai has stated that in case IP-I providers are allowed to own, establish and rent/ lease active network infrastructure which include “wireless telegraph” apparatus, they would also be required to acquire the licence for possessing such apparatus, which comes under the purview of Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act. They will require an import licence from the Wireless Plan- ning and Coordination (WPC) Wing of the DoT for importing such equipment. For activating wireless backbone transmission systems, IP-I would require Microwave Backbone (MWB) spectrum also for establishing point to point communication links. It has recommended that should IP-I be made eligible for such Wireless Telegraphy Licenses