The Hindu Business Line : TRAI set to propose 4 types of licences

THE Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's final recommendations on the unified licensing regime proposes four sets of licences, starting with a unified licence which bears an entry fee of Rs 107 crore for the first year of operations, and a revenue share of just 6 per cent.

The entry fee would decrease with each successive year, going down to Rs 30 lakh on the fifth year, said Mr D.P.S. Seth, Member, TRAI, speaking on the sidelines of the national telecom seminar, organised by the Symbiosis Institute of Management. "Even these figures can come down," he added.

The revenue share of six per cent includes 5 per cent as universal service obligation and one per cent as administrative charge.The licences are hierarchical in nature, said Mr Seth.

The unified licence is an all-inclusive licence and includes national long distance and international long distance operations, Internet telephony and telecom services by broadcasting and cable operators.

The second kind of licensing is by authorisation (Licensing through authorisation) where there are no entry fees and no revenue share either. This licence includes provision of passive infrastructure and bandwidth services, radio paging and Internet services (but not general Internet telephony).

The third licence is the Class Licence, again consisting of no entry fee but a revenue share of 6 per cent. This is for niche operators and would cover all services other than those under licencing through authorisation, and which do not have both-way connectivity with public networks (for example, VSAT).

The fourth licence proposed is the standalone broadcasting and cable licence that would be as it exists currently.

Under this system of licences, an operator wishing to offer only particular services in particular geographies would be able to do so.

The current universal access service licence under which operators are offering basic and wireless services, is only the first stage of the unified licence regime, said Mr Seth.

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