Trai recommends IB ministry to grant infra status to telcos, broadcasters

To ensure compliance, Trai suggested that the ministry may consider mandating a standard undertaking which would be required to be submitted by each service provider on an annual basis

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Wednesday sent a recommendation to the government of India to grant infrastructure status to the broadcasting and cable service sector, The Economic Times (ET) has reported.

In its recommendations regarding 'ease of doing business' in the telecom and broadcasting sector, the industry regulator said, "The authority recommends that given the importance of the cable services sector in expanding television services as well as broadband services, the government may consider and grant 'infrastructure status' to 'broadcasting and cable services sector.'"

The industry has been making demands for "infrastructure status" for a long time. Additionally, Trai also recommended that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) should issue stage-wise timelines for the process of granting licence, registration, and permissions in a similar manner as has been done for uplinking and downlinking permission for TV channels, the report added.

 

The regulator stressed that the ministry should establish a Centre of Excellence to study the technical, economic, social, and legal aspects of broadcasting services. On issues relating to clearances from the home ministry, Trai said that MIB should ensure a smooth process of security clearances for applicant companies.

To ensure compliance, Trai suggested that the ministry may consider mandating a standard undertaking that would be required to be submitted by each service provider on an annual basis.

Additionally, Trai recommended that the online portal should provide a payment option to telecom operators and broadcasters to facilitate the payment of annual permission fee either for one year or more.