The
government, not operators, should bear the cost of setting up a telecom
network for routing calls on priority for persons involved in rescue
and relief operations, sectoral regulator Trai said on Wednesday.
The
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had given its
recommendations for network management during disasters in November
2013.
The
Department of Telecom (DoT) then formed a committee to examine the
recommendations. The DoT in November 2014 forwarded the report of
committee to Trai for its comments.
Reiterating
its recommendations, Trai said: “The authority is of the opinion that
provision for priority call routing for the persons involved in the
rescue and relief operations is the requirement of Government and not of
the TSPs. Therefore, the expenditure(s), if any, should be borne by the
Government.”
The
DoT said cost involved in setting up of separate networks and
associated expenses, which is not part of the TSP’s networks, should be
funded and overseen by the Government.
“TSPs
(telecom service providers) need to upgrade and provide necessary
configurations, provisioning, connectivity and roaming arrangements as
per licence conditions and no cost is to be incurred by government on
part of this,” DoT added.
However, Trai said the service providers design their networks based on traffic and commercial considerations.
Normally,
they do not take into account the situation wherein they need to
provide priority to a few of their subscribers who are involved in
rescue and relief operations, it added.
Trai
has also proposed that on successful implementation of priority call
routing (PCR) scheme across the entire network, the operators cost
should be reimbursed.
DoT
said it may enforce through relevant clauses of license conditions to
implement PCR by telecom operators in their networks and no cost against
CAPEX/ OPEX need to be reimbursed.
The
Authority, however, said it does not agree with the conclusion of the
DoT’s committee that no cost against CAPEX/ OPEX needs to be reimbursed
to the TSPs by the Government.
“The
Authority is apprehensive that non-reimbursement of expenditure may
result in non-starter of the PCR services in the country. Therefore, the
Authority reiterates its recommendation,” Trai added.
Regarding
the implementation of PCR scheme, Trai said during emergencies, primary
requirement for the persons involved in the rescue and relief
operations is of voice communication for effective coordination so that
relief to the victims can be provided at the earliest.
“The
requirement of communication for the rescue and relief team is of
urgent nature and the Authority’s focus in its recommendations was to
utilise the available infrastructure quickly and in cost effective
manner, PS domain system did not form part of the Recommendations,” it
said.
The
Authority has also reiterated other recommendations regarding the
formation of steering committee, intra circle roaming pacts, formulation
of national telecom emergency plans among others.
Posted by : Gizmeon
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