Just as the country was preparing for the next big leap in telecom with 5G and emerging technologies, the global pandemic COVID-19 engulfed us. We are witness to a more than 40-day shutdown from March 23, 2020, till May 15, 2020, where everyone is connected virtually and working from their homes.

During this critical lockdown period, the telecom sector has proved to be the backbone of the country to ensure people remain socially connected, information is processed and disseminated. Telecom networks have also enabled various sectors to remain connected and functioning, the move to Work From Home can be sustained, and facilities like online classes, online payments, continue to be available to citizens. As a result the networks have witnessed an enormous surge in data usage.

Despite the deep financial stress, the industry continues to ensure the uptime of their networks remain at 99.99% while maintaining key quality of service parameters. When the dimension of the COVID-19 pandemic became apparent, the industry quickly implemented its Business Continuity Plans that would ensure the networks would perform with no disruption, in the face of the challenges thrown up by the pandemic . At the initial phase of the crisis, the industry aggressively pursued all the stakeholders initiatives that would provide safety, accessibility, and bandwidth to mobile phone users during these challenging times. While initially implementing stringent workplace hygiene at the office locations, It subsequently directed their non-essential staff to work from home.

Telcos have placed their personnel in kiranas stores, medical stores, grocery stores, mother dairies and other locations approved to be kept open by the government, so as to enable customers to top up their service packs. Online access through company websites have been streamlined and made easy to navigate and for payments to be made. The industry has also gone the extra mile to ensure those in the \u201cbottom of the pyramid\u201d receive some free voice services and SMS services during the period of the quarantine.

This would not have been possible without the support received from the Department of Telecommunication, Home Ministry (local police), Ministry of Health, State governments and others, as they are at the forefront fighting the Covid-19 virus. The standard operating procedure issued by the Home Ministry facilitating the movement of staff and logistics to maintain the network was a significant relief. The Home Ministry also classified the \u201cretail recharge facilities for the prepaid mobile connection\u201d as an \u201cessential service\u201d associated with a public utility, thus opening up additional venues for customers to recharge their services.

The State governments were also quick to respond to the requests from r the TSPs. Based on the MHA notifications, to facilitate recharges , the State Government allowed the opening of mobile recharging retail outlets. Power distribution companies and state governments provided their support to the industry to ensure uninterrupted electric supply was available for Data Centres and NOC. Vehicles carrying diesel were allowed so that DG sets at cell towers and other critical locations could get the required fuel, which is the backup power source in case of non\u00adavailability of electricity.

To ensure customers can get new SIMs without any problem, the process requiring verification of documents by employees was deferred and Tele-verification through IVR was allowed. The support from Police and NDRF to address any sensitive situation was also extended to our staff. TRAI also extended the date of some of the compliance requirements of the TSPs for e.g. TRAI extended the date for the submission of the Monthly and Quarterly reports, to be submitted by the TSPs, by 6 weeks from the due date. We thus received full support from the Central and State Government, TRAI and DoT in our endeavour to keep the networks running.

Thus, with support from government departments and various ministries, telcos have successfully managed to provide seamless connectivity, in such a difficult phase. After an initial surge in network traffic, the industry is now witnessing a flattening of traffic demand on the networks. We believe this has been made possible by the active engagement of the telecom services providers with stakeholders such as streaming platform players, and the DoT Streaming Platform Providers helped by reducing their content from HD to SD, local municipalities helped by working with operators to bring sealed towers back online, some redistribution of traffic on the network also helped, among other things. Based on the current status, operators believe they can now continue to provide reliable and quality services to customers.

The critical nature of mobile networks has become increasingly clear, especially as seen in the context of the most recent national and global emergency. In such a situation, it would not be cavalier to say that the health of the industry is also the health of the Nation. In such a scenario the Government support for a vibrant telecom sector is very critical. Given the ever increasing demand for data and services on our networks, the Government must address the issue of the financial distress of the sector and provide immediate and timely relief, so that telcos can make the necessary investments in networks to ensure the robust connectivity and quality of services as per global standards.

To resolve the financial stress, telecom industry had approached the Ministry of Finance with key asks including providing soft loans against GST input credit due to Operators, to address the immediate liquidity crunch as also reducing the SUC by 3% for all TSPs and reducing Licence Fee (USOF Contribution) from 8% to 3%. The industry had also urged to exempt the levy of GST on License Fees, SUC and Payment of Spectrum debt acquired in auctions. They also seek exemption of service tax on the amount of LF\/SUC payable by telecom operators prior to implementation of GST, in compliance with the Hon\u2019ble Supreme Court AGR Order.

We believe that sector can be compensated from the USO Fund where more than Rs. 51,500 crore is lying unutilised as on March 31, 2020, The total outstanding dues from PSUs amounting to approx. INR 20,000 crore which is pending since long should be released. The sector can be provided the refund of the unutilized input tax credit immediately or be provided soft loans at MCLR rate, using the GST input credit as collateral.

We believe that all of us \u2013 Government, civil society, the judiciary, industry, Operators, must all pull together and move forward uniformly, if we are to achieve our Honourable Prime Minister\u2019s vision of making India a Data and Knowledge global powerhouse which can then provide global leadership. A 5 trillion dollar economy is not a pipe dream but a reality to be grasped and made real. We are confident the Telecom Sector will play its part in achieving this milestone.

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