The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Monday said it will submit recommendations on the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal's directive to work out a level playing field between the cellular and basic operators offering wireless in local loop services, to the government in 2-3 months.
"We will work out the details and submit our recommendations to the government in the next two to three months," Trai chairman Pradip Baijal told PTI in New Delhi
Trai would work out the details in "letter and spirit" of TDSAT's judgement, he added.
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Asked whether Trai would hold consultation with the stakeholders, he said, "We have not yet decided on the modalities...we will come out with a consultation paper and may hold open house discussion at some of the places."
The consultation paper would be issued within the next two weeks, Baijal said and emphasised that this would be a separate exercise and would not clash with Trai's proposed consultation on the unified licence regime.
The main areas for working out the level playing field include additional entry fee over and above what the basic telecom operators were paying, charges for additional spectrum and access charge among others, sources said.
TDSAT, last week, while allowing the WLL mobile services, had asked the government to initiate action on a level playing field and complete the exercise within four months.
Though Trai has started working on the level playing field between cellular and basic telecom operators, industry analysts have said it might prove to be a difficult task as one service (WLL) was limited and the other (cellular) was unlimited.
They said the unified licence regime could provide an enduring solution to the present woes of the telecom industry.
The Communications and IT Minister Arun Shourie, immediately after the TDSAT ruling, had also favoured the unified licence regime to end the process of litigations between the two types of service providers.