India should auction mobile TV licences- regulator
NEW DELHI, Jan 3 (Reuters) - India's telecoms regulator has recommended auctioning licences for broadcasting mobile television services, and said a provider must transmit signals using either terrestrial systems or satellite.
Mobile TV services allow subscribers to watch on hand-held devices either through telecoms networks or by broadcast.
Foreign investment in a provider will be allowed up to 74 percent, but no more than 20 percent must be owned by broadcasting companies, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said in its draft recommendations.
The provider, too, cannot hold more than 20 percent of a broadcasting company, it added.
While telecom firms will not need a separate licence to provide services on their networks, they will if they wish to broadcast such services, TRAI said.
Firms need to have a net worth of 400 million rupees ($7.6 million) in each service area to bid for satellite-based licences and of 30 million in each area for terrestrial-based operations, the regulator said.
Operators which win licences will automatically be alloted at least 8 megahertz of spectrum, and will have to share its infrastructure with other providers.
India's state-run television channel Doordarshan, which has a monopoly on terrestrial transmission, should be permitted to share its infrastructure with providers which use terrestrial transmission systems, TRAI recommended.
The choice of technology used to deploy such services has been left to the provider, but it must be digital, based on international standards and should allow subscribers to migrate to other providers without changing their handsets, TRAI said.
($1=39.40 rupees) (Reporting by C. Jacob Kuncheria, Editing by Mark Williams)
