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Convergence Bill hints at cross-service restrictions

Bipin Chandran & Anjan Mitra

The Communications Convergence Bill 2001, slated to be introduced in Parliament Friday, has hinted at cross-service restrictions for licensed services like broadcasting, cable distribution, Internet services and telephony, while leaving the responsibility for framing the details regarding this to the proposed super-regulator Communications Commission of India.

To ensure fair competition and a safeguard against monopoly, the CCI may by "regulation specify conditions for granting of licenses or registrations, restrictions on the number of licenses or extent of accumulation of interest in such licenses by a person," the Bill, a copy of which is available with the Business Standard, states.

This may mean that big media houses like Zee Telefilms (having a cable distribution and ISP businesses too), Star India (with 26 per cent stake in Rajan Raheja-promoted Hathaway Cable) and telecom majors like Bharti will have to restructure if they want to obtain licenses for various services.

According to the Bill, the proposed CCI will be responsible for assignment of spectrum to various users (like cellular and limited mobility services) for non-strategic and commercial uses, a responsibility which is being currently discharged by the Wireless and Planning Commission.

The Bill also points out that the events held in India and which also have general public interest, will have to be carried on the network of the public service broadcaster (Doordarshan) also.

In order to strive towards providing a level-playing field to the bidders for broadcasting rights or persons interested in receiving broadcasting rights for events notified, the commission shall determine, well in advance, the principles and terms for the access to the network of the public service broadcaster," the Bill states.

This means that a cricket match played in India cannot be exclusively aired on a private satellite network without DD also having access to it.

However, when it comes to policy matters, the super-regulator will only have recommendatory powers with the Central government making the final decision on the policies. The Bill provides for five categories of licenses.

The first category called network infrastructure facilities is for setting up earth stations, cable infrastructure, wireless equipment, towers, posts, ducts and pits used in conjunction with other communication infrastructure.

The second category of license is meant for networking services. This will be for areas such as bandwidth services, fixed lines and mobile services.

The third category is network application services and will cover areas such as public switched telephony, public cellular telephony, global mobile satellite communication by satellite, IP telephony, radio paging services, PMRTS, PSDS and radio and television broadcasting services.

The fourth set of license will cover areas like satellite broadcasting, subscription broadcasting, terrestrial free-to-air TV broadcasting and terrestrial radio broadcasting.

The Bill has classified the Internet services, unified messaging services and the likes in the fifth category called value-added network application services.

However, as per the Bill, to offer services like IT-enabled services, e-commerce, tele-banking, tele-education, tele-trading, tele-medicine, video tax services and video conferencing, no licensing is required.

The Bill also proposes setting up of a spectrum management committee with the Cabinet secretary as its chairman and the office of a spectrum manager, who will co-ordinate with international agencies in matters relating to spectrum planning, use and its management.

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