TRAI proposes single licence; Reliance asked to pay Rs 1,581 cr
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended a single licence for cellular and basic service operations (including limited mobility) even as it has suggested a six-month time frame to replace the existing licence regime with unified licensing through an automatic process for all telecom services. TRAI chairman Pradip Baijal said that the objective of the unified licence regime is to be achieved in a two-stage process with the unified access regime for basic and cellular services in the first phase, to be followed by a process to define the guidelines and rules for fully unified license / authorisation regime. The charge for spectrum shall be determined separately.

Pointing out that the choice of area under the unified license would be left to the operator, Baijal said the existing operators would have an option to continue under the present licensing regime (with present terms & conditions) or migrate to new unified access licensing regime in the existing circles. The license fee, service area, rollout obligations and performance bank guarantee under the new regime will be same as for existing cellular service providers. The TRAI has recommended that for migrating to the new regime, basic operators will have to pay an entry fee equal to the amount paid by the fourth cellular operator, after deducting the entry fee paid as basic operators while no additional entry fee should be charged from cellular operators.
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