ITU Case Study: India’s Unified Authorization Regime

Licensing Category

Types of service

Registration Charge (Nonrecurring Fee)

Licence Fee

Bank Guarantees

Service Area

Roll-out obligations

Licensing through Authorisation

IP-I, IP-II, Radio Paging, PMRTS Services and Internet services (along with existing restricted internet telephony)

none

none

none

National level or circle level (same as in UAS regime).

none

Class Licence

Services covered under ‘Licensing through Authorization’ , VSAT Services, Niche operators*

none

6% of Adjusted Gross revenue (AGR) i.e.  Contribution to USF(5%) %20 Administrative cost (1%)..  As the sector revenues grow, the percentages will be reviewed for downward revision.

none

National level or circle level (same as in UAS regime).

For niche operators service area would be at SDCA level.

none

Unified Licence

All telecommunication services including basic, cellular, unified access service, NLD, ILD, GMPCS, Broadcasting Services, Internet Telephony, etc. and all services covered under class licence and ‘Licensing through Authorisation’.

Registration charge shall be IRN 1.07 billion ( USD 22.8 million)  plus a function of BSO’s (entered in/after 2001) entry fee depending on the Service area(s)/circle(s) where the unified licensee wishes to offer access services. **

IRN 1.07 billion ( USD 22.8 million) is the discounted value of NLD %20ILD entry fee. The total registration charge shall be gradually reduced from the recommended level to IRN 3 million (US $ 0.06 million) after 5 yrs.

Same as Class licence

Performance bank guarantee (PBG) for Unified Licence will be as per UASL. For NLD/ILD  operators and UALs who do not migrate to Unified Licensing Regime, the existing PBG shall continue.

National level or circle level (same as in UAS regime).

For access services: UASL rollout obligations

For national long distance services, the licensee shall make an arrangement to pick up/handover long distance traffic of his subscribers in all service areas. Inter-service area traffic could be handed over/picked up at the choice of Unified Licensee/NLDO either at a central location or LDCA. The traffic could also be handed over/picked up at SDCA level with the mutual consent of interconnecting service providers.

For ILD services existing roll-out  obligations would continue.

*Niche operators would be allowed in SDCAs where fixed rural teledensity is below 1%.  Niche operators shall be permitted to offer fixed telecommunication services including multimedia services only in these    SDCAs. These operators, shall however, be permitted to use fixed wireless networks.

** Integrated operators will not pay any registration charge (entry fee) for migration to Unified Licence.

[1] AGR – Adjusted Gross Revenue

[2] See http://www.trai.gov.in/

[3 Each telecom circle is divided into few Long Distance Charging Areas (LDCAs) which are further sub-divided into several Short Distance Charging Areas (SDCAs).

[4] Certain kinds of Internet telephony will only require an authorization.  Currently, licensed operators, within their existing licensing arrangements, may offer Internet telephony using one of the following means: PC-to-PC and SIP device-to-SIP device from anywhere to anywhere, and PC-to-phone (where the phone is located outside of India).  The proposed Unified Licensing Regime would allow these kinds of Internet telephony through an authorization process.  Other kinds of Internet telephony, such as phone-to-phone Internet telephony, would require the operator to hold a unified licence. 

[5]Detailed draft recommendations have been placed on TRAI’s website at: http://www.trai.gov.in/