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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said that
it has recommended a drastic decrease for unified
licensing fees from USD 25 million to USD 1 million
and further reducing it to less than USD 100,000 in 5
years. It further called for a single regulator that
will allow the oversight into increasingly converging
market. Telecom vendors, cable operators, and wireless
service providers are planning voice, video, and data
over their networks and currently each mode of
delivery is regulated separately.
The need for a common regulator is even more accentuated
in the wireless space where CDMA-based fixed wireless
operators are at odds with GSM-based operators. GSM
operators paid a larger fee with rights for roaming,
long distance calling, and supplementary services,
while CDMA operators were given rights to only local
operation as the wireless local loop (WLL) rights.
However, subscribers have demanded equitable services
forcing WLL to approach the Telecom Dispute Settlement
Appellate Tribunal to force TRAI to allow them to
offer these services.
In the end, TRAI had to allow open competition
for all operators and the essential gainers were
subscribers, which resulted in this telecom boom.
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