"TRAI's Teeth Will Be To Chew, Not Bite"
The TRAI chairman, who has to take crucial and contentious decisions like the final abolition of the ADC, on the challenges facing him.
A 1967 batch IAS officer, Nripendra Mishra is the first TRAI chairman with a sound knowledge of the telecom sector and earlier stints as chairman, Telecom Commission, and secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DoT). During the former TRAI chairman Pradip Baijal's tenure, the regulator and the DoT fought on most issues. Mishra is expected to make a difference in this area. He has worked closely with Union telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran as well as private operators on key policy initiatives like broadband. But Mishra has to take crucial and contentious decisions like the final abolition of the Access Deficit Charge (ADC) that will hurt BSNL badly. Excerpts from an interview:
Over the past few years, TRAI has announced a slew of recommendations but little action has been taken on them. What role do you foresee for TRAI?
It's often said that TRAI does not have any teeth. Is it time that trai got some powers, and not remained a purely advisory body?
TRAI and DoT have rarely agreed on crucial issues in the past. Since you have worked at DoT, can we see better relations?
There are a number of unresolved issues like the interconnect agreements. What is your roadmap to resolve them?
The issue of number portability (where a consumer can retain the original mobile number while shifting to a new service provider) is one where the DoT has been a little conservative. After TRAI has given its position, what's likely to happen now?
We have seen that accountability of operators has fallen far short of expectations. The earlier TRAI regime had come down heavily on operators. How would you work on ensuring consumer protection and improving the quality of service?
The government has talked of convergence and TRAI has also put out a consultation paper on it. How far are we from full convergence and the introduction of new technologies like 3G?
The amendments to the rules of Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund, used for spread of rural telephony, to make it available to mobile sector is also pending...
The new Access Deficit Charge (ADC) regime announced will hit BSNL as it brings down its annual receipts from around Rs 5,000 crore to about Rs 1,200 crore. How will you tackle this?
Despite the ruling of the courts to bring the conditional access system (CAS) back, the original problems still exist...
Last year, your predecessor recommended a Trap system to regulate the broadcast sector. That too has been forgotten...
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