The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has started the process to move to the next phase of Unified Licencing (UL) regime, which would delink licencing of networks from delivery of services.
The Telecom Commission (TC), which is the highest decision-making body within the DoT, has sought recommendations from the Telecom regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on the second phase of Unified Licencing (UL). The TC has taken the decision in its meeting in March this year. The second phase of UL, as proposed originally by the DoT Committee on UL, would also include associated issues of reference offers, mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) under the new regime.
According to a recent communication, the regulator has been requested to examine the issues and recommend accordingly. The TC has also given the deliberations of the DoT Committee on this.
The DoT Committee on UL had earlier proposed that the de-linking could be addressed in the second phase for a smooth transition. The UL, in the first phase has delinked licence from spectrum.