COAI against allowing 'limited mobility'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, OCT. 7. Cellular and basic phone companies, never the best of friends, have another reason to take opposite stands. Cellular companies feel their basic counterparts will gain an unfair advantage if they are permitted limited mobility. In simple terms, limited mobility will allow a subscriber to carry his fixed phone handset within a radius of about 10 kms.

Speaking at a news conference here on Thursday, the newly elected chief of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), Mr. Vinay Rai, said companies have already appealed against the move to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) following information that the Telecom Commission has already approved the proposal.

The basic reason behind the opposition to limited mobility by cellular companies, who have all along claimed to welcome competition, is that out of the estimated 600 towns in the country, single cell sites by basic phone companies will completely cover 580 towns thus giving them stiff competition in the Indian hinterland. Worse, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited will also be able to provide limited mobile connectivity without being branded a cellular operator. It will hence be able to prevent poaching of its customers in small towns by private cellular companies.

Cellphone companies have demanded that they should be given easier terms and conditions if the Government wished to allow basic phone companies to poach on their turf. ``In that case, the Government should move towards a single license,'' said Mr. Rai. Cellphone companies want spectrum charges to be dropped, permission to cell companies of different circles to hand-shake and retention of 45 per cent of ISD and 60 per cent of STD charges.

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