THE DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS believes in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of improving the ease of doing business. For the department, this means one major reform per month. Telecom secretary J.S. Deepak, in an exclusive conversation with BW Businessworld’s Suman K. Jha, opens up on various issues related to the upcoming spectrum auctions and Reliance Jio’s entry in the market. Excerpts:
The upcoming spectrum auctions take place at a time when rock-bottom tariffs have been introduced in the market. There’s a feeling that major players may be conservative in the auctions. Does that worry you?
If you look at the sector as a whole, it is propelled by two things — one is private enterprise, risk taking and investments, and, second is competition. This (Reliance Jio) entry would add to both competition and private investments, so in that sense, it should help the sector.
It is also feared that an expensive auction would push the sector further in a debt trap…
The auction is about putting out a lot of spectrum in the hand of operators, both in volume, as well as in variety. The defining feature of this auction is not so much about the price you talk of, but about the fact that any operator can choose and buy the spectrum missing in his bouquet to improve the quality of their services. It has been a continuous complaint of the industry that it is starved of spectrum and therefore, is not able to provide quality service. After this auction, this complaint should be a thing of the past, and spectrum scarcity of fragmentation being an impediment in providing quality services would no longer exist in India.
Are you confident of your expected figures?
I don’t know what you mean by expected figures. Every auction has some spectrum put out for sale. All of it is not expected to be sold. There is unsold spectrum too. So, I expect unsold spectrum in this auction also, but there is a lot of spectrum for which there is robust demand.
It’s feared that the entry of Reliance Jio (RJio) will push the players in the 6th and 7th position out of business. Will you help in ensuring a level-playing field?
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