India: TRAI to ask government for unified license

16 June 2003 – According to a report by the Hindustan Times, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is expected to ask the government to allow the conversion of all telecom licenses into unified licenses enabling any operator to offer any type of service.

 The recommendation for a unified license could be sent by TRAI within 4-6 weeks as there is increasing pressure from banks and financial institutions for some government assistance to forestall a collapse due to substantial losses being suffered in some segments of the telecom industry. TRAI officials confirmed that mobile operators were suffering severe losses despite tremendous growth in volume.

 The idea of a unified license, which could enable any operator in a designated territory to offer mobile and fixed services was recently advocated by Communication Minister Arun Shourie.

 According to sources in TRAI, with such a policy in place, there would be only two types of services, fixed and mobile. This would mean that all types of mobile services, whether wireless local loop or cellular, would be recognised as simply “mobile services”.

 Intelecon Research & Consultancy Ltd. 16/06/2003

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