Telcos say direct to mobile tech poses challenges; demand transparent auctions – Technology News

Telecom operators, represented by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), on Monday said the proposed direct-to-mobile (D2M) technology will pose new challenges for them. The new technology will create a separate broadcasting network, thereby undermining market fairness, telecom operators said.

Once implemented, D2M services would pave the way for streaming television and video content directly to mobile phones, without an internet connection. Consumers will get to choose between internet streaming and D2M for viewing live television on their mobile handsets. 

“COAI has called for transparent auctions of the sub-GHz (526-582 MHz) spectrum, integrating it into telecom networks to maintain fair competition,” said SP Kochhar, director general of COAI.

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“Additionally, the suggestion for a dedicated D2M network for disaster alerts is unnecessary, as cellular networks effectively deliver alerts via the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) platform,” Kochhar added.

Moreover, analysts said telecom operators won’t be in favour of D2M services as it directly competes with them.

“They (D2M) are direct replacements for TSP services. Also, free spectrum allotted by MIB (Ministry of information and broadcasting) is an unfair edge for current service providers,” representatives of telcos told Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) earlier.

Currently, the government is checking the commercial viability of the D2M technology.

Countering the views of telecom operators, Prasar Bharati has proposed non-allocation of broadcasting spectrum in the sub-600 MHz band to telecom services.

In an earlier note to DoT, the public service broadcaster said the spectrum band, especially in 470-582 MHz, is used for terrestrial television (TV) broadcasting and the frequency is used by TV transmitters. Given that Prasar Bharati is coming up with new-age digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasting services or direct-to-mobile (DTM) technology pan-India, absence of ample spectrum might restrict the expansion of the planned services.

Besides the D2M issue, telcos also voiced concerns over TRAI’s quality of services (QoS) benchmarks. 

COAI said that telcos face persistent challenges like Right of Way (RoW) issues, spectrum interference and infrastructure constraints. 

“TSPs view the newly proposed QoS norms, including monthly and site-to-cell level reporting, as impractical and overly burdensome,” Kochhar said in a note.