Recommendations are issued by the TRAI on the easiness of doing commerce in the telecom sector. They have proposed a time-bound & quicker approval of M&A applications, more alternatives for upholding to spectrum embracing limits after a merger and systematizing of the penalty levy procedure.
The regulator has recommended that the government should give a definitive timeline, not surpassing 30 days after the approval receipt from the NCLT for giving consent to merger or transfer of licenses. It also mentioned to make it a component of the M&A rules as well. The DoT, at present, doesn’t have a definite timeline for consenting M&A applications but it has 30-day duration to raise any concerns after a merger application has been put forward to the NCLT.
TRAI has also recommended that if a merger leads to spectrum holding exceeding the allowable limit, the consequential entity should be given an alternative to either trade or surrender its spectrum holding. And this should be done within the set period of 1 Year. Furthermore, it has suggested that spectrum trading should be allowed in all the spectrum bands that have been placed for sale.
In case of violation of license stipulations by an operator, the controller has recommended that the government turn up with an appropriate matrix connecting the penalty to the incident severity and violation recurrence. Under the existing license conditions, the fine compelled for each breach in a service area spans from Rs 1 Million to Rs 500 Million.
Also, TRAI has recommended that licenses for representing new experimentation or equipment for new technologies such as internet of things or 5G should be approved within 30 Days and 15 Days, correspondingly. Also, according to the controller, the experimental license should be legitimate for 6 Months rather than the existing 3 Months and expandable by another 6 Months.