TELECOM POLICY PARADIGM-

LOOKING FORWARD
FIRST SESSION

SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

NATIONAL SEMINAR ON TELECOM POLICY
ORGANISED BY
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF COMMUNICATION FINANCE
 REPORT PREPARED BY:
DR RUPIKA, SHRI RANVIJAY SINGH, SMT POOJA GUPTA (2015 BATCH IP&TAFS)
 TELECOM POLICY PARADIGM- LOOKING FORWARD

The topic for the first session of the NATIONAL SEMINAR ON TELECOM was deliberated
upon by the panelists- Ms Preeti Nath, Principal Economic Advisor to DoT, Mr Ravi Gandhi,
President, M/s RIL, Mr P. Balaji, CRO, M/s VIL, Mr Rahul Vatts, CRO, M/s Airtel, Mr. Vikram
Tiwathia, COAI, and the entire session was wonderfully moderated by none other than the Director
General of NICF, Shri Srikanta Panda himself.

It is pertinent to mention that the foundation of the first session was laid by the illuminating
speech of Member (Finance), DCC, Shri P.K.Sinha, wherein he defined the telecom ecosystem and
put forward the key challenges of the Telecom Sector in the coming future viz. personalization of
services and partnership among different stakeholders.

Induction into the 1st session by Moderator:

DG NICF introduced the topic of the first session to all by briefly outlining the National
Telecom Policy 1994, National Telecom Policy 2012 and finally the National Digital Communication
Policy 2018.
Shri Panda remarked that the Telecom sector finds itself at a crossroads and the time has
come to ponder whether our policies are reactive in nature and why there is always a punctuated
equilibrium in this sector. Shri Panda questioned whether, moving forward, there is a possibility of
proactive policy making by envisioning ‘the big picture’ in order to avoid the decennial (once in 10
yrs.) stress mentioned by Member (F).

Presentation by Panelist Ms. Preeti Nath, Principal Economic Advisor to DoT:

Ms. Preeti Nath reviewed the Telecom Development Parameters in a detailed manner and
questioned whether the policy-makers are in a fire-fighting mode. The EA displayed the trend of total
telephones, both rural and urban and the impact of the two COVID waves on these trends.
Subsequently, the tele density (in %) was deliberated upon.
It was found that tele density in India was 88.5% whereas internationally, several developed
countries had reached 100% and some had even reached 130%. It was also noticed that there was a
sharp difference between rural and urban- 60% and 141% (the latter was yet to recover from a sharp
fall from 153% over the last year).
The total Internet subscription was found to reach 82 crores with a low growth rate of 3.79 in
March 2021, giving ample room for growth. In particular, growth rate of rural internet subscription
was as low as 4.74% (6% pre-COVID) with only 32 crore subscribers. It was remarked upon that this
is one area where the policy makers cannot afford to be lax. The urban internet subscribers amounted
to 50 crores with a growth rate of 3% (1.5% pre-COVID).
The divide was found to be stark between rural and urban internet density (39% : 61%). 60
per 100 members of the population was availing internet (source: TRAI). This was much lower than
that of developed countries where it had crossed 100.
 The policy makers would hence need to really understand these problems to find the right
solutions for which there are no quick answers.

Presentation by Panelist Mr. Ravi Gandhi, President, M/s RIL:

Mr. Gandhi elaborated upon how the decade of 2011-2021 had witnessed the Telecom Sector
crossing the KBPS speed era, then MBPS speed era and had now reached the GBPS speed era, i.e.,
speed evolved 1000 times in the last 10 years. Surprisingly, the ARPU ( Average Revenue Per User)
has remained between 100- 150, i.e., no correlation between speed and revenue earned.
The next phase is about to witness completely new dimensions of technology with Telecom
Sector continuing to remain a catalyst of lifestyle changes as in the past 50 years. The President of Jio
proudly announced that the 5 years of Jio 4G had attempted to cover all the corridors of population.
The Telecom Sector in India is one of the largest Exabyte factories globally (10 raised to the
power of 18). India consumes 7 EB/ month out of the global consumption of 66 EB/ month of data.
70% of the traffic relates to video traffic with approximately 6 hours of daily usage.
The panelist briefly touched upon Jio’s “Indigenous 5G Stack”, which claims that Jio has
created a complete 5G solution from scratch, that will enable it to launch a world-class 5G service in
India, using 100% home grown technologies and solutions. This was made possible by a global push
towards open standards and softwarisation of telecom networks.
The future would see a change in how everybody communicates and collaborates (e.g.
holographic meets), receive medical treatment (remote diagnostics), etc. It would lead to physical-
digital convergence (3-D printing). All these would culminate possibly in workforce upskilling.
The Panelist briefly touched upon PDOA (Public Data Office Aggregator) network.
The presentation ended with light thrown upon the security concerns which are ‘very real’.
These concerns could be addressed by strict compliance to security standards, data residency, data
ownership and secure operational processes.

Presentation by Panelist Mr P. Balaji, CRO, M/s VIL:

The Panelist started the discussion with a deliberation on how to move forward to a 5 trillion
economy which is underpinned by a 1 trillion digital economy (after due collaboration in the Sector).
It was only due to the fast-evolving Telecom industry and vibrant startup ecosystem that companies
such as Zomato and Freshworks could hop on the stock market and avail its financial benefits. The
booming service industry owes is a direct correlation to the growing digital economy.
The Panelist remarked that the acceleration post-2011 was also largely helped by efforts of
the Indian Government. The recent Production-Linked Scheme is one such. The NDCP 2018 which
spoke about Connect, Propel, Secure India was another.
Next, the Panelist moved ahead with the issues to be handled in the coming future, primarily,
implementation challenges which require flexibility by way of delegation at grassroots level. Further,
the stagnancy in processing of the PDP Bill and NDP Bill would need to be crossed over. Finally, the
Panelist spoke about the security issues which require an entirely new paradigm of construct to be
effectively addressed.
Presentation by Panelist Mr Rahul Vatts, CRO, M/s Airtel:
The Panelist gave a brief about the network created by Airtel and future plans including
increasing fiber reach and building backhaul. He proceeded to discuss upon the status of global 5G
adoption. He anticipated the economic contribution of 5G in India as a % of annual GDP to grow
0.6% over the near future.
India is now the 2nd highest smartphone-owning nation globally. However, ARPU in India
remains around 1.68 whereas that of the world has reached 8.9. This is inspite of India’s prepaid share
being 81.47%. Hence the Telecom Industry receives negligible returns.
He briefly touched upon the unsolved conundrum of spectrum pricing.
The Panelist anticipated huge investments in the coming future by APAC (Asia-Pacific)
Telecom service providers towards 5G CAPEX. The emergence of 5G will set the stage for Industry
4.0. Though this shift in the global arena requires accelerated fiber rollouts for 5G, Satellite is equally
ready to meet the exponential demand of countries. No doubt, the regulatory paradigms would need
refashioning.
In this new normal, localized standards would not be sustainable as already seen in the
examples of China, South Korea, Japan. Open ecosystems thrive on global standards towards which
our future ought to be directed.
Other areas of potential policy shift in the future would be private LTE networks, content
delivery networks (CDNs), network slicing (a distinctive feature of 5G), Fixed Wireless Access and
the like. Apps (applications) which are gateways to economic activities may also witness a phase
change in the 5G era.

Presentation by Panelist Mr. Vikram Tiwathia, COAI:

The Panelist opened the discussion with the query of why 5G was such a politically hot issue.
In pursuit of the answer to the query, he went on to give a digital snapshot of India like physical
number of smartphone devices and such other parameters. He appreciated the design of Tarang
Sanchar portal and the data that it carries.
The presentation contained details of cost of spectrum sold till now viz., USD 10.41 billion
for a total of 855 MHz spectrum. The Panelist reviewed the emerging opportunities and growth
potential of the Sector. In the future, he called for a review of the number of audits conducted for
TSPs, involving Blockchain Technology for smart contract and audit, simplified regulatory provisions
for implementation of IoT and subsequently, Industry 4.0, single agency for regulation of cloud
services, use of indigenous Indian stack for creating the upcoming smartphone ecosystem and finally,
ascertaining better security compliance to address all threats.

Q&A Session:
The questions revolved around why there was very low ARPU in India, whether the same
rules will guide pricing of spectrum, why we need to dissolve islands of standards in order to
synergize better and whether end-to-end 5G can be a reality. An interesting point raised was that
networks in India are limited by capacity and not by coverage, hence the need for more spectrum.

Final Remarks by Moderator:

 The DG of NICF remarked that though the Industry was well represented in the Panel, there
was no representation from the supply side. He urged all stakeholders to take into account the State
Governments stepping in into the policy making arena and the ecosystem as such. Shri Panda
expected, in the near future, specific R&D into why the Industry was plagued with low ARPU. The
question of whether increasing the GST is of any help to the Telecom Sector also required analysis.
The First Session was successfully concluded by the distribution of souvenirs by DG NICF to
the Panelists.
This was followed by the Second Session which was to deliberate upon the REGULATORY
CHALLENGES in the Telecom Sector.