COAI Goes Against Public Data Aggregators Proposal Recommended by Trai

All the major telecom operators in the country have crowded around Trai to request the watchdog from preventing unlicensed entities to develop public Wi-Fi hotspots in cities. The operators have cited that such a move on the regulator’s behalf will be illegal. Trai, in March last year had recommended the telecommunications department that a new category of public data office aggregators would give a boost to India’s broadband infrastructure by providing cheap public Wi-Fi in towns.

  • Make Telecom Talk My Trusted Source
  • Source of Google
  • Source of Google

coai-public-data-trai

Rajan Matthews, the Director General of Cellular Operators Association of India said in a letter to Aruna Sundararajan “Trai’s recommendations, if implemented, will be in conflict with the existing licensing framework, and more importantly, establishing public Wi-Fi networks without a licence would be illegal and in violation of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.” ET saw a copy of this letter.

The COAI which represents the big telcos like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular and Reliance Jio Infocomm drafted the letter on June 8 and explained its stance on the issue.

It was COAI’s opinion that implementation of the Trai recommendation would “adversely affect the level playing field” as licensed operators adhere to the regulations and guidelines set for the service providers. In addition, they also pay the levies such as licence fees, spectrum usage charges. However, the unlicensed entities would not do either of these things.

The letter further said, “Allowing the same activity to be performed by an unlicensed entity would give it an unfair advantage and lead to revenue losses for the financially stressed licensed operators.”