Time and again I have said that if we all believe that the ‘Customer is the King,’ then it is crucial that the ‘customer’ is involved at all levels of planning and decision-making. I was very happy to see the Telecom Users Group of India (TUGI), perhaps the only telecom users’ body in the country, emphatically seconding the Government’s proposed move on unified licensing.

Without getting into the merits and demerits of TUGI’s decision to support unified licensing, I must admit that it’s a very bold and courageous move on TUGI’s part. It has been almost a year since Arun Shourie became India’s communications minister.

And till date, he has not had time even for a brief chat with TUGI members, despite repeated requests for a meeting.

Anyways, it is quite clear, once again, that the telecom users very seriously considers themselves as stake-holders in the overall telecom scenario in the country. In fact, it should be encouraging for the Government because while some countries are doing away with telecom licensing, our user fraternity is not against the license raj in telecom.

But why would users be interested in a unified telecom license system? It will be a good idea if we can get to know what their expectations are from a unified license. First and foremost, users hope that a unified license will put an end to all the litigations going on in the telecom space. They believe that if telecom operators get rid of all the legal battles, they would be able to focus more—in terms of energy and resources—on customers. But, that is not all. Users expect a unified license to get them a lot more.

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One of the biggest problems for large enterprise users is that of dealing with too many agencies. For instance, if a heavy voice user, say a call center in Delhi, wants to set-up wireless radios, he needs to get ‘No Objection Certificates’ from over 21 different organizations including the Airport Authority of India, Delhi Police, ONGC, Doordarshan, All India Radio, Home Ministry, the Railways, the three defense wings and so on. It takes anywhere between 6 months to 24 months before the WPC can give him a license. That the users will be freed from this is one of the greatest expectations from a unified license.

Then there are other things, which users believe a unified telecom license will do. They suppose that prices of telecom services will come down. And also the quality of services will go up, and they will be able to actually sign SLAs with their service providers. They are also of the opinion that a unified license will lead to consolidation, where only serious players will stay. 

It’s a different story, whether these hopes come true or not. The fact is that the customer has certain very clear expectations from a unified license policy. The customer (who also happens to be increasingly becoming the king) will therefore, play a key role in making unified licensing a success story. The government will therefore, have to be very sure of the benefits to users, and clearly spell it out.

Ibrahima