Indian telecom industry’s revenues are likely to increase in the range of 14-15 per cent in the current financial year thanks to some improvement in ARPU (average revenue per user), Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) said.
The newly appointed Director-General of COAI, SP Kochhar said that any duopoly situation in the current private telecom market can never be a good thing, adding sufficient competition amongst the telecom service providers is needed in order to ensure subscribers get good services at better prices.
The COAI (Cellular Operators’ Association of India) is a neutral body that has faith in the principle of consensus building, Kochhar said when asked about earlier differences on several issues among the telecom giants which are also members of the association.
COAI tries to get the point of view of all members unanimously and we make sure whenever we project to any government or regulatory authority, we do it as a unanimous voice, he said.
Expressing concern about the industry’s financial distress, the Director-General said COAI will continue to push for relief measures, be it a reduction in spectrum usage charges or exemption of GST on the license fee.
Speaking in favour of competition, Kochhar added general public should get benefits from telecom at the end of the day, and that won’t happen in case of a duopoly.
It is in the interest of India that duopoly does not come in, so better services at better prices can be offered to subscribers, he said.