The Mobile World Congress (MWC) kicked off on Monday and lot of talks have begun on future technologies and growth momentum in the telecom industry. This year, the largest events on mobile communications network were on 5G, Internet of Things and also on policies. Major telecom operators were all talking about new challenges and future plans. BusinessLine caught up with Vittorio Colao, Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Group, who shared his views on latest technologies and plans about India. Excerpts:

What are your comments on zero rating plans and their impact?

This is an evolving space and everyone is testing right now. There are services in bundles and include contents...we have clearly said that we do not want a big player to be bundled with ours.

We have different opinions in different parts of the world but important thing is always to preserve fairness – we are not part of the Facebook experiment – and I said that I found the model disproportionately helping one dominant player. For me, more than saying ‘this model is good or this model is bad’, it’s important to say which model will allow more competition. In some cases, zero rating would be good...education for example. Education content for Africa or India; I don’t think anybody would object to that. It should be open for debate as long as you accept the rules of the services. Zero rating technologically is downgraded…but are you discriminating, I don’t think so.

Do you plan to participate in the spectrum auction in India?

The only comment I can make is that the pricing of spectrum should not reflect on the internal capital of the Indian market, given the fact the tariff price is very low in India. There must be a proportionate cost for spectrum and the economic condition of the country. There should always be a return on investment. We make a lot of money, but we also invest a lot of money and the gap between the two is sometimes not as much as people think.

There is also a second thought sometimes that prices will go up if there is consolidations overtime. But, if you look at the price (per minute), they are going down and down. So, when people wonder about the prices in our sector, I think it’s not fair.

What are your views on 4G and RJio’s launch this year? Do see a tough competition?

It will be great like anywhere else (in the world). We have launched 4G in India in a couple of cities and will progressively launch everywhere. Having said that, it has also been a 3G market for many years and we continue to be there. So, we will keep both technologies in parallel – I want to stick to both 3G and 4G.

As far as Jio is concerned, I know it is going to be a formidable competitor, and is launching in the second part of the year. We will be as ready as we can to welcome them. But, we have competitors everywhere in the world and now it (Jio) is going to be another powerful one.

Any update on the arbitration notice by the Indian government?

The arbitration case is going on and we have said what we had to about that notice, and we have pretty good relations with the government. Arbitration keeps going on with no disturbance, I would say.

What do you have to say about the listing of Vodafone’s subsidiary in India?

It depends on many conditions – Reliance Jio entrance, on the tax disputes...there are many moving parts, so it (listing) could be by the end of this year, or maybe next year.

Are over the top (OTT) players eating into your voice and messaging services?

At the end of the day, our connection is good – high quality connection with unlimited voice. Once we have the right plans throughout Vodafone, we don’t see WhatsApp voice, Facebook voice or Skype being good enough – because good quality matters.

But, people use WhatsApp because it is fun, cool and well-designed. It is fine as long as they are paying Vodafone for the right connection and good quality. Some applications will be from Vodafone and some from the competitors. We are in favour of such competition (in future).

Should OTT players come under some regulations?

I think the same rules should apply to all. If I am an OTT, I should follow the same rules as Google or WhatsApp...if I need to know the customers, they should also know the customers. If I need to provide services to the authorities in case of trouble, they should do the same...so yes, the same rules should apply as services are the same.

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