Opposing any more layer of regulation telecom industry under heavy debt, battling several challenges, ASSOCHAM has approached the department of telecommunication with a plea to drop the proposal of mandatory testing of telecom equipment which is used in India after certification from well-known third party global bodies.
In a letter to the telecommunication secretary and chairperson of the telecom commission Aruna Sundarajan, ASSOCHAM said that the move to get the draft guidelines by the Telecom Engineering Centre for mandatory testing of the end to end equipment would add one more layer of regulation and go against the spirit of ‘ease of doing business’.
The ASSOCHAM letter signed by its secretary general D S Rawat said, “products (end to end equipment) are developed keeping in view the relevant legal and regulatory requirements in global markets including India and equipment makers proactively ensure stringent technical and environmental standards. The telecom products that are envisaged in mandatory testing by TEC are developed based on various international standards and do undergo rigorous testing and certification regime at international labs for Environment, Health, Safety”.
ASSOCHAM has cautioned that this mandatory testing would not only be counter-productive to the industry which is already heavily debt ridden and would also create serious issues in the global supply chain cycle. Declining revenues, mounting debt, hyper-competitive market place have posed tremendous pressure on network investments, expansions. The financial pressure is leading to further debt and the industry is already going through a rough patch leading to consolidations at both operators as well as the global OEM’s.
By Baishakhi Dutta
