TRAI to take up review of NLD opening up on priority

Justice S S Sodhi headed TRAI had recommended fixing a one-time entry fee of Rs 500 crore and another Rs 500 crore as deposit. With a few suggestions, the original recommendations of the erstwhile TRAI including Rs 2,500 crore net worth for participant joint ventures have been returned to the new body, DoT sources added.

DoT, in effect, has agreed to most recommendations of the dissolved body such as revenue sharing and 20-year licence period, extendable by 10 years later.

However, the exact position of DoT was not clear on the erstwhile body’s recommendations such as making entry fee and revenue sharing applicable to Department of Telecom Services (DTS) and fixing a five per cent revenue share.

Opening up of national long distance is consequent to India’s commitment during negotiations on basic telecom of World Trade Organisation (WTO) and is expected to bring down the cost of STD.

The dissolved body had recommended no bidding process and multipoly allowing any player with a net worth of Rs 2,500 crore and experience in telecom sector to enter market by submitting blue print of its programme and paying the one time entry fee.

It had recommended that of the Rs 500 crore entry fee, Rs 400 crore will be in the form of refundable deposit to be used as an incentive to ensure timely rollout of network.

It had recommended only national level licences for the services to ensure adequate build up of infrastructutre since it felt that a multiple tier system with regional and local build-up would not be healthy.

However, it had recommended resale of capacity by licensees after three to four years of opening up the sector. Opening up of NLD has also been stated in the National Telecom Policy (NTP-99), which had said that the sector would be opened for competition from January 1, 2000.