At an open house discussion by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on “Regulating Converged Digital Technologies and Services – Enabling Convergence of Carriage of Broadcasting and Telecommunication”, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi) recommended auctions as the default mechanism for spectrum assignment for broadcast and telecom applications. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel reiterated the need for regulation of content tariff across distribution platforms so that the same content is not priced radically different on different platforms.
According to Jio, more spectrum should be made available for 5G, and the service provider should be allowed to decide how to use the acquired spectrum, rather than the regulator pre-deiciding the purpose of each band. It said that the majority of spectrum bands can be used interchangeably between separate satellite and terrestrial networks. Vi, in its comments, supported the view that all spectrum should be auctioned. The telco also proposed a common licensing ministry for ease of obtaining permissionsin case of convergence.
However, the broadcasting industry opposed auctioning of spectrum used for television broadcast, arguing that spectrum used in broadcast is of the space category and is available in abundance. The Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF) had previously submitted in its written comments to TRAI that spectrum management for telecom and broadcast should be kept separate since the two services serve different purposes.
Meanwhile, Airtel also stated that only terrestrial spectrum should be auctioned. It also stressed on the need to regulate content distribution in the same way it is regulated for linear TV. The telco said that the same content is delivered over linear TV and over-the-top (OTT) streaming platforms but the rules and regulations governing the tariffs are different for both. It added that if this anomaly continues, the industry may risk an exclusionary and discriminatory impact on subscribers.
