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Trai paper on unified licencing on Sat

October 03, 2003 17:19 IST

Notwithstanding the controversy over the proposed unified licencing regime, Telecom Regulatory Authority is all set to make a presentation on Saturday before the Group of Ministers on telecom on its recommendations on the issue.

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Trai chairman Pradip Baijal is expected to make a detailed presentation before the six-member Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, which is currently looking at contentious issues in the telecom sector like unification of licences and Wireless in local telephony.

"Trai had issued a consultation paper on unification of licences, following which it received a huge feedback both for and against the proposed regime. The regulator is in the process of preparing final recommendations on the regime, sources said.

They, however, declined to divulge any further details.

Besides Trai's presentation, the third meeting of the GoM is likely to see noted banker Deepak Parekh making a presentation on the transition path to the proposed regime, especially on issues such as spectrum fee.

Communications and IT Minister Arun Shourie had earlier said that the GoM had agreed in principle to proceed with unification of licences and that the government had asked Trai to make a detailed presentation on the subject on October 4.

The GoM, in its first meeting, had tackled a number of issues including foreign direct investment.

 The GoM had also allowed intra-circle mergers in the sector but with a condition that number of service providers must not fall below three in any circle and that rural telephony obligations should get transferred to the new owner.

More significantly, the GoM had taken note of alleged violation of licence condition by Reliance in offering WLL mobile services, as pointed out in a report by Telecom Engineering Centre.

However, the GoM has yet to take a final view on how to enforce the limitedness in the WLL services.

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