E-Paper
Basic telecom operators change name of the association
With single licence regime in place, ABTO has changed its name to Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUTSPI).
With single licence regime merging basic and cellular licences in place, Association of Basic Telecom Operators (ABTO) have changed their name to Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUTSPI).
This was announced by the new president of association, Prakash C Bajpai, who comes from Reliance Infocomm, after the Annual General Meeting of the association.
Bajpai said this was done in view of new telecom scenario emerging in the country, adding that the association has started a dialogue with other telecom players to form a single association.
Asked whether AUTSPI has invited Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) to join them, Bajpai said the "two of us are discussing various common issues like harmonisation of spectrum, revenue share among others."
"The merger of AUTSPI and COAI will be an ideal situation. Whether it happens or not depends on many factors."
On one of the crucial issue of enhancing ceiling of FDI in telecom sector, Bajpai said, "FDI is not coming in the way of growth of telecom services... But final view in this regard has to be taken by the policy makers keeping in mind various issues concerning security."
Bajpai also said that number of mobile telecom subscribers would soon overtake the fixed line subscribers.
He said all the operators in association were prepared to implement the new Interconnect User Charge (IUC), scheduled to be implemented from February 1.
