TRAI Forms Subgroups to Identify, Discard Outdated Rules

Telecom regulator TRAI has constituted three subgroups in areas like licensing, tariff and service quality, to identify and weed out obsolete regulations and order.

The entire exercise is likely to be completed in next 2-3 months, a senior TRAI official said.

The official, who did not wish to be named, said that the three advisors of TRAI - Sanjeev Banzal (Networks, Spectrum and Licensing), Vinod Kotwal (Financial & Economic Analysis) and Asit Kadayan (Quality of Service) - are heading the individual subgroups.

"The idea is to identify obsolete regulations that have already outlived their purpose," the official said. The subgroups, which also include industry representatives, will jointly examine and identify regulations and tariff orders that are out of sync with the times.

One such area of this could be paging where services and related regulations have become outdated and are no longer relevant. Similarly, there may be regulations related to technology, like CDMA, which may be looked at during the review.

Industry representatives from Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Reliance Jio, Idea Cellular, Telenor and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd are some of the members of the subgroups.

Also, industry associations like Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI), Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) and ISP Association of India are involved in the exercise.

Earlier this year, TRAI Chairman R S Sharma had said that once the regulations are identified through a joint exercise with the industry, the regulator will take up their suggestions along with other issues that have been identified for review this year.

Among others issues, TRAI will be carrying out public consultation in areas such as developing a new framework for tariffs in evolving the communication sector, next-generation public protection and disaster relief communication networks, review of national numbering plan and review of Universal Service Obligation fund.