TRAI to resolve procedural bottlenecks in telecom business

The Dollar Business Bureau

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) underscored the need to identify some of that bottlenecks that are obstructing the functioning of telecom business growth in India and pointed out some growth-oriented steps including license acquisition, spectrum allotment and mergers to be reviewed to make the process simpler.

"...the Authority is of the opinion that various processes that a telecom licensee is required to go through should be simplified and combined to the extent possible to economise on efforts on part of the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) as well as the government," TRAI said.

The regulator said regulatory intervention was important to encourage "ease of doing telecom business" in India.

Some of the processes “include procedures related to the unified licence, including the acquisition of the licence, compliance with commercial, financial, technical conditions, and compliance with roll-out obligations, payment of licence fee, financial bank guarantee and performance bank guarantee, adding and surrendering authorisations under the licence” facilitate better functioning of telecom business.

The regulator also highlighted other issues such as “spectrum allotment and use, assignment and clearance process for the airwaves, approval process for spectrum trading and sharing”.

TRAI said it would probably revamp the merger and acquisition policy, in order to promote a consolidated growth of the Indian telecom industry. It may also streamline processes for telecom services using satellite media, including clearances from INSAT Network Operations Control Center, and obtain clearances from various authorities.

"In addition, there can be processes in other areas which may be requiring simplification...the stakeholders are requested to identify such areas of concern and review the existing processes and suggest mechanisms that ease the business activity," TRAI said.

The telecom industry will submit its views by April 11, following which TRAI will "analyse them and take necessary action for simplification of processes.