Media cross-holding under Trai review

To foster greater competition in the Rs 51,300-crore media business, growing at 19% a year,the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has decided to examine if ownership across different media segments proves detrimental to the overall health of the sector.

Asked by the information & broadcasting ministry to review the concentration of interest in the media and not obstruct "plurality of players", Trai has floated a consultation paper on cross media ownership in the country. The broadcast regulator has invited stakeholders to express their views on whether there is need for cross-media ownership restrictions and whether existing laws are adequate to address the concerns.

The regulator says as an increasing number of broadcasting and telecom companies are entering into the delivery of services, it is necessary to ascertain if restrictions on the ownership of cable, DTH, IPTV or mobile TV companies by broadcasting/telecom companies,or vice-versa,is feasible.

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Trai asks telcos to bring down SMS charges

In a move that could halve SMS charges, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has asked mobile operators to slash tariffs voluntarily. Unlike the voice traffic, the cost component in SMS is negligible–around 2 paise. Still, SMS tariffs are either higher than voice rates or at best comparable.

Sources say Trai has held two rounds of negotiations with the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the apex of body of GSM mobile operators, convincing them to voluntarily bring down the tariffs, failing which it would intervene through regulation. In fact, two years back also Trai had urged the operators to bring down SMS rates.

The average tariff for local calls is Re 1, the same as the local SMS rate, while for STD calls, the average tariff is Rs 1.50 and the SMS rate is higher at Rs 2.

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Personal Computer to Phone Calls in Offing

Removing the last barriers in seamless connectivity, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will soon allow connectivity between PC and fixed and mobile phones. This would mean that telephone calls could be made from a personal computer to a fixed phone or a mobile phone. These are currently not allowed.

The move would bring about a steep fall in STD rates and redefine the national long distance(NLD)regime.

Sources said Trai would release a consultation paper on the issue on May 12. Currently,voice over Internet protocol(Internet telephony) is permitted by licensed Internet service providers (ISPs), but such calls can only be made from PC-to-PC. For terminating such calls to phones, a special device has to be attached.

There's a big market for PC-to-phone calls, as can be gauged by the traffic in the international long distance sector, where it's allowed, the usage is about 300 million minutes in a quarter.

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