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Cellular mobile services -- Call to bring down entry barrier

Our Bureau

CHENNAI, Jan. 18

THE Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will present its recommendations to the Government by February-end on issues relating to cellular mobile services (CMS) in the country.

TRAI is currently engaged in gathering the views of cellular mobile users, cellular service providers and the end-users in various parts of the country through open house meetings. It has so far conducted open house meetings in Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta an d Chennai.

A TRAI official said the authority will hold such meetings in Bangalore and Lucknow before finalising its recommendations. ``We should positively give the report to the Government by February-end,'' the official said.

Meanwhile, in the open house held here on Tuesday, it was widely felt that to broaden the user base, the entry barrier to telecom services should be brought down substantially.

The TRAI officials present at the open house were Mr. N.S. Ramachandran and Mr. U.P. Singh, Members, and Mrs. Anita Singh, Financial Advisor.

Participants felt that the high entry cost for cellular mobile services was one of the reasons for the poor response to these services. They felt the licence fee should be reasonable and fair, comparable to some other developing countries.

Mr. C.V. Rajan, Chief General Manager, Chennai Telephones, said entry barriers should be kept as low as possible to attract users and also to enable operators to provide services at an affordable rate.

Mr. T.V. Ramachandran, Executive Vice-Chairman, Cellular Operators' Association of India, said the licence fee should not be a burden on the service provider. It should only be so much as to cover administrative charges, he said.

Mr. Ramachandran said Sri Lanka, by reducing its tariff on handsets, was able to attract a lot of users. Similarly, countries such as Malaysia and Singapore were able to attract a lot of cellular users, due to their low cost, he said.