What is the issue?
- Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has proposed new recommendations for improving ease of doing business.
- For timely implementation of these proposals concerns with regulatory structure need to be addressed.
What business bottle necks are faced by telecom players?
- Majority of the existing policies, guidelines and regulations were made during 90s, which were till not updated.
- Telecom operators need licences to import network equipment,this is merely to ensure that the department of telecom is informed of the details of imported equipment for security reasons.
- This is being a major bottleneck as getting a licence takes up to 1-2 months.
- Approvals for merger and acquisition deals in the sector take a lot of time even after the companies involved have completed all the formalities.
What are the higlights of the recommendations?
- TRAI has identified 12 areas where the existing rules need to be changed.
- It includes streamlining the process for imposing penalties on telecom companies and a fixed time-frame for merger and acquisition deals.
- Licenses for imported equipments now be easily done by asking the operators to submit periodic reports on imported equipment.
- These changes will help telecom operators run their businesses more efficiently.
What are the concerns with regulatory structure?
- The recommendations of TRAI would require a major overhaul of the existing regulatory structure.
- TRAI has only a recommendatory role with some powers to enforce licence terms and conditions.
- There are multiple bodies within the telecom department that are responsible for these activities and often there is lack of coordination between them.
- The major complication in the structure is that licensing power is with DoT while dispute settlement power is with the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal.
- This division of power has led to complications with one arm not agreeing with the other on several occasions.
What measures need to be taken?
- Over the years, governments have discussed the Communications Convergence Bill which envisages the creation of a ‘super regulator’ for the telecom and broadcasting sectors.
- The main aim was to establish a single regulatory and licensing authority with defined powers, procedures and functions and an appellate tribunal, these proposals needs to be implemented.
Source: Business Line
