Mandatory for telcos to improve network:Telecom Min

Telecom minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said telecom companies’ alibi of their license not mandating call drop-free coverage is not acceptable, adding, they should  either spend on improving their network or face grave consequences.

“No one has been talking tough with the operators. We will not appreciate their whole conduct of concentrating on data at the cost of voice and on new customers instead of old one”, Prasad said.Prasad stated that BSNL’s customer base is rising steadily and the company is on the road to revival, although there is still a long way to go. He is hopeful that MTNL will also turn around soon and pointed out that the priority is to improve the health of MTNL and not to privatise it. Below is the verbatim transcript of Ravi Shankar Prasad’s interview with Shereen Bhan on CNBC-TV18. Q: I will get to call drops in just a bit.A: You have begun with that, I will begin with this now. This was done by Nitish Kumar and company in Bihar because I was attacking them very vigorously. I am sorry even you have picked it up. However, let me tell I am the only minister who is talking tough on all the operators. No one has been talking very tough with them and I am very tough with them. They have to set it right.Earlier they only used to talk about spectrum scarcity; now all of them are publicly owning up that they have not been able to perform up to the mark. The international CEO of Vodafone publicly apologised in India when he came to meet me.What is important is they have to reinforce their network. They have to spend where expenditure is required. I will certainly not appreciate their whole conduct; they have only concentrated on data at the cost of voice. They only concentrate on new customers and ignore the old ones.I am happy now lot of towers are being erected, base transceiver station (BTS) is being erected. About 14,000 they have done in the last three-four months; in Delhi also about 2,100. BSNL has done 25,000 BTS in the last one and a half years. So, it is improving; much is required to be done.Q: Much more is required to be done but let me ask you this in the context of what is the recent development in this matter. The telcos have said that there has been no consideration either on part of the telecom regulator or on the part of the department of telecom and hence they have been forced now to move court against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) order which penalises them for call drops starting January 2016. How do you respond to that? I will come one by one to the many arguments that they make in their plea but let me start by getting your initial reaction on the fact that telcos have now moved court against the call drop order?A: Let us not make this interview call drop centric. Since they have gone to court I have nothing to say but let me tell them very clearly they have to improve. If they don’t improve alibies are not acceptable. I am sorry to say that and let me be as blunt to Shereen Bhan as possible they have to improve; they have to reinforce their network. Where it is needed to spend they have to spend, alibies will not do.Q: Let me pick up on one which you may see as an alibing, this is a part of the plea that they have made to the court and they have basically said that the regulator has not taken into account factors which are beyond the control of service operators, closing down and ceiling of cell sites, spectrum related issues including return change/swap specifically in circles of Delhi and Mumbai.A: I am sorry to say you don’t become a judge on their petition. That is what you are becoming I am sorry to say that.Q: I am asking you for a comment on their plea, that is all?A: I publicly talked about this whole radiation issue; campaign against towers and complain against call drop cannot go. I have got the entire government of India agree that the government buildings will be allowed. The postal department offices will be allowed. We have talked to New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC). I have written to all the chief ministers; spectrum trading is there. Spectrum sharing is there pending for the last 10 years. Defence bands have been identified, all the policy initiative I have done, much more can be done but what about the own responsibility of the operators.I have said from day one I am the minister of development of telecom sector I am equally the minister for the consumers of telecom. For 10 years consumers’ interest was in the background. Therefore I am saying operators will have to reinforce their network. It is not my job to get a location for them. If they can erect nearly 14,000 towers after I became tough why couldn’t they do it earlier?Let me ask you a question who has stopped them from doing it? Many of the operators told me that we were never knowing that in Uttar Pradesh (UP), Bihar, Bengal our network was so poor in maintenance.Therefore they were not maintaining it well; they were not monitoring it well. That is the point I am saying. Data growth is fine but at the cost of data why you are sacrificing the voice. These are the issues which they have to address.Since you talked of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) issue, what is the problem of MCD? They had a particular rate which was old. They increased the rate, may be they said it was arbitrarily done. They went to court; they could have resolved the matter by negotiation, by arbitration. I talked to the officers of MCD therefore all these things we have done. Let the telcos know if they don’t improve consequences will be there.Their right to go to the court is their’s; as I have said always I will hate to be known as call drop minister. If it is required to be tough, we will be tough, we will be tougher still – be very clear but they have to improve their system –number one. Number two I have done all the policy initiative I am willing to walk 10 steps. They will have to walk 20.Q: Let me talk about the steps that we can possibly see moving just beyond this issue now. Some of the recommendations or suggestions that have come in from industry specifically on spectrum trading and sharing for instance as far as the spectrum cap is concerned Sunil Mittal at that Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) press conference or the briefing where you were also a part of has said that the cap which is currently at 25 percent should be extended to about 50 percent odd because of the market share that people enjoy especially in circles like Delhi and Mumbai. Is that a consideration that you would look at?A: My reply is very simple. My reply is there are many operators. Sunil Mittal has a point, may be yes, may be no. Many others are opposed to it. As a minister I would take a balanced view.The assignment of spectrum was there which I have already liberalised but the cap part is concerned, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has taken a view there is no need for cap. Telecom commission has taken a view. We will see, I am not closed to it completely but my problem is this, let me repeat it again because you are a financial channel every interview, every question and answers becomes a kind of almost a projection of the concerns of the operators.