Telcos oppose Centre’s public Wi-Fi plan, seek TRAI’s hands-off approach

Taking issue with the Centre’s public Wi-Fi programme for a second time, the telcos have urged the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to revert to its original hands-off approach for broadband tariffs as per its forbearance policy.

Earlier, TRAI had proposed to level the tariff for Public Data Office (PDO) under the Prime Minister Wi-Fi Network Interface (PM-Wani) scheme and for retail broadband (FTTH) connection. The idea was met with vehement opposition from telcos who argued that services for commercial resellers like PDOs are not interchangeable with retail FTTH services for end-use subscribers. Following this, TRAI had revised the amendment to say that broadband tariff (FTTH) for PDOs will not exceed twice the tariff applicable for retail broadband FTTH services.

Still dissatisfied, one of the telcos Bharti Airtel said the amendment fails to distinguish between the two services that cater to different needs and are optimised for distinct types of usage.

“FTTH, as a product/service offered by TSPs, is only meant for the personal use of customers and not for reselling – even when it is offered to enterprise customers. No reselling is a key component of the essential terms and conditions on which FTTH is offered to customers. If a customer wishes to resell internet connectivity, the product/service offered to them is Internet Leased Line (ILL) and not FTTH. Commercialisation of FTTH, if it were to be offered to resellers like PDOs as per the suggestions of the TRAI, would disturb the entire offering structure of TSPs,” said Airtel.

Price caps
Similarly, industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) argued that mandating price caps in the B2B market will not serve any purpose. Price caps fail to account for important aspects like varied cost structures, infrastructure investments, maintenance costs, and scalability, said COAI. Instead it said price caps distort the competitive market equilibrium and discourage businesses from differentiating their offerings based on value-added services or efficiency.

Reliance Jio said the Public Data Office Aggregator under the PM Wani scheme act as competitore to the TSPs providing the broadband/internet services.

“No TSP can be forced to sell its network services to its competitors at the arbitrarily regulated prices for building their network,” said Jio.

On the other hand, the Broadband India Forum (BIF) argued PDOs operate within a regulated framework which distinguishes them from typical commercial customers. As such, it said that aligning their tariffs with retail FTTH rates is consistent with their operational and regulatory context. For this reason, the BIF asked TRAI to return to its earlier proposal of keeping PDO tariffs the same as retail FTTH rates.

It asked that PDOs only be charged for the core broadband services consumption, stating that Public Wi-Fi is not a competitor but a complement to FTTH and mobile broadband services.

“The earlier proposal of retail parity better serves the goal of affordable broadband proliferation. We urge TRAI to reconsider its position in light of the points outlined above and ensure a framework that prioritises digital inclusion, entrepreneurial viability, and long-term growth for all stakeholders.,” said the BIF.

However, Vodafone Idea (Vi) challenged this notion of bridging the digital divide by a public WiFi. Vi pointed out that 45 per cent of the present WiFi hotspot deployment is in urban areas, which fails to serve the rural area. Instead, it argued that handset affordability is a bigger barriers to access broadband services.

“The consumers, in such areas, have feature phones and are generally using older technology due to handset dependency and cost of shifting from feature phone to smartphone. It is important that the Government schemes should factor in this aspect, while designing public welfare schemes. To address the same, policy support is required for feature phone consumers to purchase smartphones. We believe that handset subsidies would play a key role in addressing this issue and will make a wider segment of the rural population access mobile broadband,” said Vi.

Considering the interests of different stakeholders, Vi suggested that TRAI conduct a detailed Regulatory Impact Assessment and hold a consultation on the same rather than continuing with the amendment. The Hindu BusinessLine