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Say
Hello to Another
Scam
The raging corporate war over the
introduction of limited mobility telephone services has turned political,
with the Prime Minister's Office being charged with subverting the regulatory
system and favouring a few business houses. An INDIA TODAY investigation
looks at the conflict between the sanctimonious claims and the grim reality.
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STATES
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Ballot Boxwallahs
The approaching assembly elections
have brought to life five states which are set to witness a stiff fight
and whose results can have a big impact on all major parties. A profile
of the prime contenders who could tilt the balance either way.
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BUSINESS
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Fall
From Grace
Despite a triple-digit growth in net
profits of Infosys Technologies and Satyam Computers, the stock prices
of the two companies have plunged. Is it the gloomy forecast for software
companies that's hammering down the prices?
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Unnatural Alliance
The CNG controversy has taken a new turn, with
doubts being raised about the propriety of the Delhi Government's selection
of Nugas as the sole supplier of the conversion kit.
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EDUCATION
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The Doon Boom
The city that houses Doon School is
now playing host to a whole array of new education barons--with big money
and even bigger ambitions.
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OTHER STORIES
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Home |
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COVER STORY: GOVERNMENT
The WiLL
That something
as innocuous and obscure as wireless-in-local-loop (wiLL) could ever be
at the centre of a raging controversy involving the entire telecom industry
and the Prime Minister's Office would have never been imagined by the
telecom experts who first proposed the use of the technology in 1995 when
the licensing terms for private fixed-phone companies were being finalised.
The fixed-phone companies, who were actually granted licences only in
1997, were allowed the use of WiLL to provide fixed-line phone services
in regions where laying telephone cables was difficult and expensive.
To enable the use of WiLL, a spectrum of five megahertz was allocated
to each of the six companies that had a licence. But the use of technology
remained limited due to the high cost of providing fixed phones though
WiLL. The cost of a fixed-phone instrument that could operate on the WiLL
technology was Rs 15,000. Besides, customers also needed to install an
aerial at their premises to receive the signal.
Changes in technology in recent years have now
made it possible to use WiLL to provide not only fixed-lines phones, but
also mobile-phone services. Saddled with an extremely limited roll out
and the high cost of their operations, private fixed-phone companies saw
this as a godsend to revitalise their businesses. While there are over
32 lakh cellular phone subscribers, private fixed-phone companies have
so far been able to build a subscriber base of only 2.8 lakh. The MTNL
had introduced a WiLL-based mobile service in Delhi in 1999 which is still
in use, but its subscription is restricted to a chosen few-mostly government
officers. WiLL-based mobility that TRAI cleared on January 8, 2001 restricts
the area of mobility to what is defined as a Short Distance Charging Area
(SDCA) which is about 50 km. There are 2669 SDCAs in the country. WiLL-based
mobility is not only limited to an area, it has other limitations too.
It can carry only voice-not data or images-and cannot provide value-added
services like WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), or Short Messaging
Service (SMS).
The Facilitators
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Shyamal Ghosh,
telecom secretary
Rushed through the changes in telecom policy and announced them on
a government holiday.
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M.S. Verma,
chairman, TRAI
The regulator overturned earlier decisions on limited mobility and
legitimised the practice of tailoring policy to suit decisions already
taken by the PMO.
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METRO TODAY |
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 Web
Exclusives |
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A war of words is on at the Jammu border where
India is trying to build a fence to stop infiltration, much to Pakistan's
dislike, reports
INDIA TODAY's Special Correspondent Ramesh Vinayak in Despatches.
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