Sunil Mittal is seeking subsidies from the Indian government to revive the dying fixed-line phones in the country.
The chairman of Bharti Airtel, the leading private sector GSM service provider, has sought the removal of licence fee and service tax that are burdening the sector.
"The plain old telephone service, better known as fixed line telephony, has become the bedrock for broadband telephony and serves as the basic and vital platform for any knowledge society. Almost all the internet and broadband applications for the private sector, government and society-government interface are principally run on fixed line telephony across the world," Mittal said in a representation made to the Finance Ministry.
Compared to countries like China, which has over 360 million fixed line and 600 million mobile phones, fixed lined telephony has had a slow start and is struggling.
The total number of fixed line connections in India stands at around 39 million and there has been virtually no addition in the last five years. The number of landline connections of the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam has been moving into "negative territory".
The country needs to have at least 200 million landline connections to further telephony growth and provide Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services.
The fixed line segment is burdened with a licence fee of 6-10 per cent and a service tax of 12.36 per cent, which the government can certainly "take away". It also contributes 5 per cent towards the Universal Service Obligation Fund, whose proceeds are used to subsidise the rural foray of private companies.
There is no need for fixed line operators to contribute to the already unutilised pool of USO funds, and companies such as BSNL should be given an exemption.
"Fixed line in itself needs support, and therefore, it should be entitled to access USO funds rather than contributing to the USO fund itself", he stated.
Mittal also sought compensation for the losses of Rs 44,093 crore suffered by BSNL due to the difference in access deficit charges.
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