Computers Today, October 2001; Telecom

October, 2001 TELECOM

Computers Today, October, 2001

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TELECOMMENT
Converge Regulation

T.H. Chowdary

Like the IT Bill, the Convergence Bill, which was introduced by the Government in the Monsoon Session of Parliament, is expected to be passed without much debate as it is incomprehensible to many of our worthy members of Parliament. Of course the leftists and populist members will repeat the usual charges of scams in telecom licensing.

Of Nephew And New Economy

In the last decade, the world has seen a rapid succession of revolutionary technologies.

These innovations have led to the transformation of traditional telecommunications and broadcasting systems. Today, a single information infrastructure carries interactive speech and broadcasting, audio and video, and data and text communications. This phenomenon is known as convergence.

The best demonstration of a convergent system is the Internet. All information is digitised, put into packets and labelled so that these packets can be transported over several networks and delivered in their original form to the called number/address. This facilitation is what we should expect from the Convergence Bill.

Some aspects of the Bill, however, still carry the legacy of the control-permit-license-quota mindset. Take, for example, the case of appointments to the regulatory body. Though fortunately removed from the authority of a single minister, members are to be selected by a committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the two leaders of the opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and the communication and broadcasting ministers. This is an entirely political process and we can be almost certain that the appointments will be politicised.

The US experience

We should adopt a method prevalent in the US. The Prime Minister (like the US President) may name persons to the regulatory body. These appointments, however, have to be subject to approval of a confirmatory body (like the Senate Committee), consisting of, say, the Chief Justice of India, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. The names of the candidates should be announced and a public hearing should be held so that the nominated persons can be subjected to criticism of their record (like the Senate Committee hearings). Only after such deliberations should they be appointed.

Another safeguard should be that only those persons who have worked for telecom/ information companies should be appointed to the body. The Bill says that persons with 15 years' experience qualify to be appointed. Private telecommunication firms are less than six years old. This would mean that competent persons from these companies become ineligible. This cannot be justified.

What the Government should do is to appoint persons with 10 years of relevant experience-whether in India or abroad. Of course, they should have severed their connection with their companies for at least one year before being considered for an appointment.

The Imperatives

In an age of convergence, it is meaningless to have separate licenses for mobile and fixed telephony; Internet protocol telephony (VoIP) and the traditional one; and local, interstate, domestic long distance and international services. A composite license that allows any service in any area is the order of the day.

Ministerial restructuring is also necessary. We should combine the ministries of information technology, telecommunications and information and broadcasting to be headed by a minister of cabinet rank, assisted by ministers of state for IT, telecom and broadcasting. In the light of this, the sections in the Bill envisaging separate licenses for different services should be substituted by a clause that promotes competition and facilitates interconnection and consultations with user bodies. Also, the regulatory body's expenses should be met from the Consolidated Fund of India so that it is not indirectly controlled and manipulated through the budget of its "administrative" ministry.

The writer is ex-chairman of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd

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