TRAI wants raising licence period to 15 years in new FM radio guidelines

The authority has also asked I&B ministry to fix the cutoff date for existing FM operators for migration to phase III

The telecom regulatory authority of India has issued recommendation on migration to phase III for private radio broadcasters in the country and said that the permission period for existing operators who migrate to Phase III be raised to 15 years from the existing 10 years.

The authority has also asked the I&B ministry to fix the cutoff date for existing FM operators for migration to phase III after the completion of the auction process and not later than March 2015.

TRAI has also said that a provision needs to added while inviting applications to permit existing phase II operators to bid for an additional channel in existing cities, where it already operates if it manages to win the rights for another channel in the city.

India currently has 242 radio channels and the government will soon roll out the e-auction for 839 channels across 294 cities in the country.