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Assocham Seeks Fast Clearance Of Convergence Bill
[December 15] In an open letter addressed to the Indian Prime Minister, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) Expert Committee on Telecoms appealed for immediate clearance of the Convergence Bill, envisaging a "composite" license in the bill against separate licensing practice followed at present.
The letter also voiced the telecom industry's concern with the prevailing regulatory mechanism.
"Unless the convergence era is unleashed, the industry is unlikely to be able to offer affordable communication to the common man; besides, the massive investments various private sector players have made will surely go to waste," Chairman of the Assocham Expert Committee on Telecom K. Sandell said.
Telecom industry associations, spearheaded by Assocham, are establishing an intra-industry regulator and standardizing authority, for settling all disputes and setting standards for telecom services as convergence advances.
Industry players are apprehensive that all investments and efforts made by private sector telecom companies are likely to be endangered, if a neutral representative from the industry is kept out of the proposed Convergence Commission as a full-time member, said Sandell.
The letter went on to say, "convergence communication in the new millennium ahead will rest on fast-changing and highly complex technological and industrial parameters, whose understanding is not always possible, without costly delays, by a generalist bureaucrat, however, brilliant he might be."
Urging for provision of composite licenses in the bill, Sandell said the industry has asked India Prime Minister Vajpayee to do away with the concept of separate licenses for separate telecom services.
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