The Hindu : TRAI consultation paper on unified licencing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 16, 2003

National

National

TRAI consultation paper on unified licencing

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 15. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today issued a preliminary consultation paper on total Unified Licencing Regime covering all communication services, including long distance (both STD and ISD) internet telephony and satellite services.

The preliminary consultation paper follows the Government's decision to implement the Unified Access Services Licence for the basic and cellular services and would consider issues such as ambit type of unified licencing, services area, entry fee and licence fee besides others. "In the fast evolving technological era, if we still continue in a service-specific regime, given the type of further growth in telecom services in India, we will get into endless litigations and claims on Government and, therefore, we have to abandon service specific licences at the earliest and adopt a unified licencing for all telecom services,'' TRAI said in a statement here.

TRAI has sought written comments by December 7 from all stakeholders in the telecom industry for preparation of the final consultation paper. Other issues that would be considered by the authority include registration charges, roll out obligation, business case of existing service providers, especially stand-alone operators, interconnection and numbering issues. Last week the TRAI Chairman, Pradip Baijal, had indicated that the revenue sharing for all types of services, once they come into the ambit of full unified regime, would be the same.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National