COAI wants govt to consider telcos’ fiscal health issues

COAI (The Cellular Operators’ Association of India) has taken steps to consider the attacking pricing strategy of Reliance Jio, a mobile network operator in India, as on account of these strong pricing strategies, the government may lose out on revenue.

Hence, the association intends to take some corrective actions before the banks stop lending to the sector.

As per media reports, domestic banks' 80 per cent disbursal of Rs 4.6 lakh crore is subject to the telecom sector, and looking at the current situation, it is very alarming.

However, the director-general of COAI said that, Telecom Secretary, JS Deepak has raised this issue, which should be seen from the point of view of Telecom Commission and not that of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

Telecom sector has no spectrum constraint and now it is being consolidated, which may help this sector to use its spectrum more effectively.

COAI has written to TRAI and DoT and has asked to address the issue with 4G-enabled, dual-SIM smartphones using MediaTek’s chipset. It has also asked the government to discontinue the 2G-SIM devices in six months.