(3 January 2008 4:00 pm)

NEW DELHI: Mobile TV service providers can't hold more than 20 per cent of a broadcasting company, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has said in its draft recommendations.

A service provider can also have an upper foreign investment limit of 74 per cent, but no more than 20 per cent can be owned by broadcasting companies.

"Any mobile television licensee should not allow any broadcasting company or group of broadcasting companies to collectively hold or own more than 20 per cent of the total paid up equity in its company at any time during the License period. Simultaneously, the mobile television licensee should not hold or own more than 20 per cent equity share in a broadcasting company," the Trai recommendation says.

The telecom and broadcast sector regulator has also recommended auctioning licences for broadcasting mobile TV services, and said a provider must transmit signals using either terrestrial systems or satellite.

Eligibility Criteria

Telecom operators will not require any further license or permission for offering mobile television services on their own network using spectrum already allotted to them, Trai has said.

Companies need to have a net worth of Rs 400 million in each service area to bid for satellite-based mobile television licenses and Rs 30 million in each area for terrestrial-based operations.

A state should be the license area for a mobile television terrestrial service license. Some of the smaller states can be combined to form an appropriate license area in order to enable financially and operationally viable model.

For satellite based systems, the license area for mobile television service license should be the entire country.

Operators which win licences will automatically be alloted at least 8 megahertz of spectrum, and will have to share its infrastructure with other providers.

The Trai recommendations on mobile TV services has laid out some strict rules that service providers must adhere to, including time bound implementation of service once a license is received, and penal measures for non-execution.

Similar disqualification norms like FM

The general disqualifications which have been adopted for Private FM Radio may be used for mobile television service also, Trai says.

As per the recommendations, the tenure of both types of mobile television licenses (terrestrial and satellite based) should be for 10 years.

The licensee fee should be charged at the rate of six per cent of Gross Revenue for each year or at the rate of 10 per cent of the Reserve One Time Entry Fee limit for the concerned license area, whichever is higher, recommends the regulator.

The important issue is time bound implementation, which Trai has insisted upon, saying: "One year is a sufficient and reasonable time for rolling out of services by a licensee in case of satellite based transmission route."

Norms for Terrestrial & Satellite transmission

In cases of terrestrial transmission mode, the licensee should be required to discharge the roll out obligations at the most in two phases.

In the first phase, the licensee must commence the mobile television transmission in at least one city having a population of more than one million or the city with the largest population (as per 2001 census) within the license area within one year from the date of grant of license.

The second phase of roll out obligations would require all the cities having a population of more than one million within the license area to be covered within a period of four years from the date of grant of license.

The licensees, both through the satellite route and the terrestrial route, should be required to pay liquidated damages at the rate of one per cent of the Performance Bank Guarantee for delay of each week or part of the week in commencement of the mobile television service beyond the first year, but within a period of two years after the date of grant of mobile television license.

"Where a mobile television licensee is unable to meet the roll out obligation even in two years from the date of grant of mobile television license, the entire Performance Bank Guarantee should be forfeited.

"Simultaneously, the government should proceed to cancel the mobile television service license issued to such a licensee including surrender of spectrum and begin the process of fresh allocation of license," says Trai.

It holds that the mobile television licensees having all India licenses (for satellite based systems) should be required to furnish a Performance Bank Guarantee of Rs 200 million and the mobile television licensees having state-wide licenses (for terrestrial systems) should be required to furnish a Performance Bank Guarantee of Rs 20 million for each license area.

Pubcaster Doordarshan, which has a monopoly on terrestrial transmission, should be permitted to share its infrastructure with providers which use terrestrial transmission systems, Trai has recommended.

Digital technology

While Trai says that the chosen technology should be digital, it has recommended allocation of carriers in the UHF Band V (from 585 MHz - 806 MHz) for terrestrial mode of mobile television transmission, and S-Band for satellite mode of mobile television transmission.

The recommendation says that the licensee should ensure that the technology used is such that its subscribers are generally able to migrate to any other licensee using the same standards without changing the handsets if the handset has been provided by the licensee.

Spectrum allocation

On the issue of allocation of spectrum, the salient recommendations are as follow:

• Apart from Doordarshan, private operators may be assigned at least 1 slot of 8 MHz each for mobile TV operation using terrestrial systems.

• For satellite based systems also, apart from Doordarshan, private operators may be allocated spectrum such that a bandwidth of at least 8 MHz is available to them for mobile television services.

• Sharing of terrestrial transmission infrastructure of Doordarshan should be permitted on mutual agreement basis in a non-discriminatory manner.

• Wherever a mobile television service provider has installed its own infrastructure, it must be shared with other such service providers.

• The licenses for mobile television services (for terrestrial systems and satellite based systems) should be granted through a Closed Tender System on the basis of One Time Entry Fees (OTEF) quoted by the bidders.

• Allocation of spectrum to mobile television licensees should be automatic for successful bidders and should not require any further selection process.

• A mobile TV license may be made mandatory for UASL/ CMTS licensees, if such licensees wish to use broadcasting technologies for offering mobile television services. For this purpose, they would be permitted to participate in the bidding process.

Trai seeks second round of consultation

The ministry of Information & Broadcasting had sought the Authority's recommendations in June last year on various issues relating to proposed licensing policy for mobile television service.

The Authority had issued a Consultation Paper on these issues on 18 September, 2007. This was followed up with an Open House Discussion in Delhi on 26 October, 2007.

"The draft recommendations have been released today for a second round of consultation as the subject matter of recommendations is new and the technologies for mobile television are still in an evolutionary phase," Trai has said

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