TRAI recommends 2-page service authorisation for providing telecom services

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended that the government grant a two-page service authorisation to an entity seeking to provide telecommunication service under the new Telecommunications Act instead of entering into an agreement and prescribed the detailed terms and conditions through rules.
For different service authorisations identified by TRAI, it has recommended the rules running into 440 pages. TRAI has also recommended reducing entry fees for seeking such authorisations.
The recommendations came in response to a consultation on the issue that TRAI commenced on July 12 at the request of the department of telecommunications (DoT). DoT sought the regulator’s recommendations on how the terms and conditions, including fees, for authorisation under the Telecom Act should work.
TRAI has recommended three broad categories—main service authorisations (for primary telecom services such as access services, internet services, long distance services, satellite-based telecom services, and M2M WAN [machine-to-machine wide area network services); auxiliary service authorisations (services provided to enterprise users and not public at large), and captive service authorisations.
TRAI recommended that the details of various service authorisations which deal with eligibility conditions, the scope of service, and the validity period should be in the form of rules for grant of service authorisations.
It suggested that apart from the service-specific authorisations, a unified service authorisation should be introduced at a national level to provide the primary telecom services. An entity with the unified service authorisation, as per TRAI, should be allowed “complete flexibility” to carry its traffic at the national level.
Fees for different authorisations have also been reduced. For instance, for access service authorisation, the entry fee has been reduced from ₹1 crore to ₹50 lakh for each telecom circle and from ₹50 lakh to ₹25 lakh for J&K and the Northeast.
TRAI has recommended that entities authorised to provide internet services should also be permitted to provide virtual private networks (VPNs) and domestic leased circuits (DLCs).
TRAI has also suggested consolidating different kinds of services under common authorisations. For instance, national long distance service and international long distance service should be merged under “Long Distance Service Authorisation”. This new authorisation will also allow cable landing stations for domestic and international submarine cables, and will allow domestic traffic through submarine cables connecting two coastal cities of India.
Currently, there is no single authorisation for satellite-based telecommunication services. There are two different authorisations — GMPCS (global mobile personal communications by satellite which allow the authorised entity to provide satellite-based telephony and data services), and VSAT CUG (very small aperture terminal – closed user group which help provide data services for enterprises through satellites).  
TRAI has recommended that authorised entities can lease telecom resources from cloud service providers who are either empanelled by the IT Ministry or authorised under this framework. The cloud, however, must be located within India.
The issue of whether over-the-top (OTT) communication services such as WhatsApp, FaceTime and Telegram are covered by the Telecom Act, which had been raised by multiple stakeholders in their written comments to TRAI and during the open house discussion on August 21, was not addressed in TRAI’s recommendations.