Relief being considered for telcos?

There seems to be some activity to get the telcos out of the financial mess.

Sunil Bharti Mittal has sought government intervention to help the telecom industry turn around its battered fortunes. In his message to the shareholders of the company, he said that while the “worst may be behind for India’s telecom industry”, it is yet to emerge from the woods.

To make it possible for the telcos to go with the government direction of keeping the more competitive Chinese vendors out of their procurement process, the government may pitch in by lowering the base price of 5G spectrum.

In the meantime, Ericsson and Nokia are recommending that since their equipment is manufactured in India, DoT consider services like cost of installation, maintenance, logistics, which are substantial, apart from components, while determining value addition. Once these services, that constitute 10-20 per cent of the total cost of a component are accounted for, they will become eligible. This would also disqualify the Chinese suppliers.

–CT Bureau