Balance between consumer and service providers is key: TRAI's Anil Bhardwaj

A regulator’s focus is not just consumer welfare but striking a balance between the interests of the service provider and the consumer, said Anil Bhardwaj, Director General, TCSR & Advisor (Broadcasting), TRAI, on the second day of FICCI Frames 2023 convention on Thursday.

Bhardwaj was speaking during a panel discussion with other domain experts on the topic - 'Trial by Fire: Challenges for Regulators to Navigate' to discuss how regulators all over the world struggle to balance industry growth, consumer welfare, and other intersectional concerns such as privacy, security and quality of service.

Talking about spectrum allocation, Bhardwaj said that the authority is right now grappling with principles like equitable allocation and market determinant price.

“There is an ongoing consultation and some of the market participants are responding to our consultation and representation to the government. 2G judgement in terms of principles, whatever the way of allocation, must be equitable and prices have to be market determinant.

“These are the principles on which TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) is right now grappling. I don’t think I need to say anything more than what our chairperson has already said. We understand that in the case of satellite spectrum, it is sometimes non-excludable,” he said.

He added that it is “not just consumer welfare but striking a balance in the interest of the service provider and the consumer”.

Sharing his viewpoint, Rahul Vatts, Chief Regulatory Officer, Airtel said that the biggest stakeholders are the customers or the consumers as they are the focal point of that end who should get the best deal.

“As far as the Indian ecosystem is concerned, most of the regulators, except those with the RBI, are still relatively young and most of the regulatory principles have been quite decent. What is very defining in all these regulations and setting up regulators, is that there are stakeholders whose interests need to be taken care of. The biggest stakeholder is the customer or the consumer as that is the focal point of that end who should get the best deal.”

He said that whatever the regulator is trying to do, there is a rational reason for it and that reason is transparently shared with everybody.

“That is why it starts from the example that TRAI came up with a consultation rather than necessarily holding an open house discussion. That’s a very important part because all the stakeholders get an opportunity to comment on what they feel,” Vatts said.

Vatts also noted that there is a joint committee on regulators and a lot of issues are getting discussed in that joint forum which is a “good practice” initiated by TRAI.

“I also see a very good practice, which the TRAI has initiated, and I think is world-class. It is related to the fact that now there is a joint committee on regulators and a lot of these issues are getting discussed in that joint forum.

“Lot of issues are now intersecting. For example, if you do something related to privacy, will it impact RBI, will it impact you, or somebody else? So, a lot of regulators are now sitting together and making large decisions,” he said.

Talking about the importance of constitutional framework, Mihir Rale, Chief Regional Counsel, Disney Star India said that the aim is that the media and entertainment ecosystem must contribute more to the GDP within constitutional frameworks.

“Content creation, per se, whether you look at sports rights, or big Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), all of this is free market driven. The Indian ecosystem works a particular way when it comes to television which is bundling of television channels. So we realise that these regulations impact content creation.

“You need to start looking at the content from the lens where you want it to contribute more to the GDP of the economy. Our aim here is that we want the media and entertainment ecosystem to contribute more to the GDP within constitutional frameworks. The constitutional frameworks are important especially in a democratic ecosystem like ours because speech and expression is a preferred right of all citizens,” Rale said.