ConvergenceBill should be revived: Trai

Telecom regulator Trai on Monday revived the long-dead Communications Convergence Bill 2001 and said it8217;s time the government did what the Communications Commission of India envisaged by this Bill was supposed to do.

Telecom regulator Trai on Monday revived the long-dead Communications Convergence Bill 2001 and said it8217;s time the government did what the Communications Commission of India CCI envisaged by this Bill was supposed to do.

The CCI was meant to be a single-point regulator for telecom and broadcasting. It was to have powers over spectrum and licencing. It had all powers related to tariff, content, competition and technical standards too.

Trai said today that the 8216;8216;need for a converged regulator was recognised in 2001 8212; this need is even more urgent today.8217;8217; But Trai has sought changes in the Convergence Bill too.

Trai said that there should be a new converged regulator with powers similar to Trai, except that these powers would not be limited or complicated by other overlapping legislations like the Telegraph Act or Cable Act.

Today, Trai is the regulator for broadcasting as well as telecom, but spectrum and licencing controls are a bone of contention it fights with the Department of Telecom DoT for.

In addition, before the regulatory heaven of convergence comes true, Trai has suggested that the entry fee for unified licences should be brought down to Rs 5 crore from Rs 207 crore recommended earlier and then to Rs 30 lakh after 5 years.

8216;8216;Since the legislative arrangements proposed earlier may take time, UASL regime should be adopted with changes at the earliest,8217;8217; Trai said today.

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The converged regulator should have powers over tariff regulation, interconnection and quality of service for broadcasting and telecom, but the power of issuing converged licenses should remain with the government, as per Trai.

Spectrum management, Trai says, should remain with government, while the proposed independent dispute resolution body need not replace TDSAT at all. Besides, Trai has asked for separate regulation of content and carriage.

Trai has argued that the present Unified Licencing regime is no more than a stopgap arrangement that addresses rapid changes in technology. Under this system, Trai said today, spectrum is allocated for specific services because of which 8216;8216;the full strength of a Unified Licence cannot be utilised..8217;8217;

Trai has cited international trends, to say that the trend is towards a licencing regime that recognises convergence. 8216;8216;..The broad thrust is to have a greater scope of individual licences to provide for multiple applications, services and technologies,8217;8217; it has said.

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A converged regulatory regime will eliminate the possibility of litigation on account that service providers are offering services not cofered in their licencing regime, Trai said.