The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has initiated studies on the country’s telecom sector as well as merger and acquisition (M&A) in the digital market, as it seeks to bolster capabilities to deal with unfair business ways.
The market study will be purely a fact-finding exercise to develop a clear understanding of the telecom sector in India, and its prevailing landscape.
According to the CCI, digital markets and e-commerce have been areas where it has been building its expertise through market studies, etc to address competition issues arising out of digital economy.
On behalf of CCI, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) has already started the market study on the telecom sector. At present, the stakeholder consultation is complete and an interim report has been submitted by ICRIER which is being perused by the commission.
The study will be designed to answer broad issues of inquiry like change in competition strategies with the adoption of new technology, analysis of the market/s and assessment of level of concentration and competition, vertical integration between access and content services, impact on competition of regulatory and policy developments etc.
Further, the stakeholders consulted include telecom service providers (TSP)/ internet service providers (ISP), academic researchers/ sector experts, tower companies and industry association such as Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA), device and equipment manufacturers, Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO), Department of Telecommunication (DoT) and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
CCI is planning to undertake market studies on other sectors as well.
