TRAI talks again about the Communications Convergence Bill

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has again recommended a single regulator for the telecom and broadcasting sectors. This brings forward the requirement of a Communications Convergence Bill.

TRAI added that the fees for such a license should be reduced to Rs 5 crore against Rs 107 crore recommended earlier. These fees would be for a unified license for all telecom and broadcasting services.

TRAI has added that with time these fees should be further reduced to a mere Rs 30 lakh. They said that it is in line with the reduced NLD (national long distance) and ILD (international long distance) license fees announced by the government in December 2005.

Another major recommendation coming from the TRAI is that regulation of carriage and content should be separated. They stated that “the converged regulator should have powers of tariff regulation, interconnection, as well as laying down quality of service standards for broadcasting and telecom sectors.”