Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Aug 10, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Aug 10, 2004 |
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Industry & Economy
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Radio/TV Industry & Economy - Telecommunications `I&B Ministry to continue issuing broadcasting services licence' Our Bureau
New Delhi , Aug. 9 THE Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has clarified that the licences for broadcasting services would continue to be issued by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry even under the unified licence regime. It has also said that the content would be regulated by the Ministry. TRAI, in its draft recommendations on unified licence issued last week, had said that operators migrating to the new regime would be permitted to offer broadcasting services as well. Explaining the rationale for such a move, it said, "Unified licence implies that a customer can get all types of telecom services. The operator can use wireline or wireless media. These services would include telephony, Internet, broadband, cable TV, Direct-to-Home, radio and broadcasting." However, the regulator on Monday said that in the case of stand alone broadcasting service licence, the prevailing process of issuing such a licence would continue under the aegis of the I&B Ministry. The Department of Telecom, in January, had notified that broadcasting and cable services would be part of telecom services. Operators pointed out that the unification of licence might lose its meaning if a separate licence was required for each type of service. "If an operator has to pay extra for mobile services and if one has to take separate licence for broadcasting even after taking a unified licence, then how is the new regime different from the existing policy," said an operator. TRAI has also extended the last date for submitting comments on the draft recommendations to August 31.
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