TMCnet News
Broadcast licences will continue to be tagged with spectrum, says DoT [Financial Express (India)](Financial Express (India) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Despite the proposal to delink all categories of licences from spectrum under the draft National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012 and the unified licensing regime, all licences pertaining to broadcasting services like DTH, FM radio, television channels, cable services and IPTV will continue to be allocated as composite licences bundled with spectrum linked to it. Also, the information and broadcasting ministry will continue to be the nodal agency dealing with the allocation of all licences falling under the broadcasting services. This has been clarified by the DoT to the I&B ministry after it raised queries last week when the matter was scheduled to be taken up by the Cabinet, but was later dropped from the agenda. Currently, all licences pertaining to broadcasting services are given as composite licences, which means that they come bundled with the necessary spectrum as per the categorisation made by government agencies. The licence for TV channels or FM radio comes in-built with the spectrum and licence holders having to pay for not only the spectrum but also shell out annual licence fee. Similarly, a DTH licence holder has to operate on Ku-band frequency for which it pays the satellite usage and related charges. This will continue to hold even after the formulation of NTP 2012 and the unified licensing regime. I&B secretary Uday Kumar Varma said: "It has been clarified to us by DoT that for all broadcasting licences, which already come with spectrum clubbed to it, the licensing authority will be the I&B ministry. Also, for broadcasting licences, there will not be any de-linking of licence from spectrum. "So, even if a telecom operator wants to obtain a DTH licence or a broadcasting licence, he will have to come to the I&B ministry for it," Varma said. Officials said these clarifications were important to clear doubts. Sources said while query regarding the authority of I&B ministry under the proposed NTP 2012 and unified licensing regime was made to the DoT, comments from various ministries like home, finance, law and others are awaited. That is the reason the matter was taken up for consideration by the Cabinet, a government official told FE. According to experts, if the delinking of spectrum from licences is applied to the broadcasting services then there would be several problems including violations of laid down norms like cross-holding for FM radio licences, DTH licences, tradability of television licences, which is not allowed currently, among others. Under the proposed NTP 2012 and the unified licensing recommendations by the regulator, it is proposed that the operators will need to obtain a single unified licence which will allow them to operate mobile, national long distance, internet services, DTH, cable, broadcasting and all related services. However, the licences will be delinked with spectrum. Copyright 2012 The Indian Express Online Media Pvt. Ltd., distributed by Contify.com Credit: Ashish Sinha (c) 2012 The Indian Express Online Media Pvt. Ltd., distributed by Contify.com |