"TIA urges India to reevaluate the basis for license application fees, capitalisation requirements and bank guarantees as it applies to telecommunications service provider licences," the Telecommunications Industry Association said in a memorandum submitted to the US Trade Representative.
TIA, which is the top-most industry body of America's telecommunications sector and is deeply interested in the vast potential being offered by India in this field, said as a general matter, application fees should reflect the cost of processing an application.
"While bank guarantees are appropriate in limited cases, such requirements should reflect the scope of business intended to be offered and should be a temporary, not permanent requirement," it said.
"India should seek to reduce high licencing fees and capitalisation requirements as they reduce the amount of resources available to service providers to invest in building out their networks and connecting India's vast population," the TIA said.
In its letter, dated October 3, TIA also urged the US government to continue to engage with India on the government's proposed policy related to in-country security assurance testing and facility inspection and black-listing of foreign telecom products on account of security concerns.
TIA said it is very concerned over the discriminatory policy proposals that India is contemplating, which are aimed at increasing manufacturing and innovation in the ICT sector and that this signals a reversal of the generally open-market and pro-competitive
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