The government is taking initiatives to improve the business environment across various sectors. As the regulatory body for the telecom sector, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has been actively working to enhance the business environment and enable the sector’s growth. To this end, TRAI issued a consultation paper, on December 8, 2021, to improve the ease of doing business in the telecom domain, identify the issues and challenges faced by service providers, and suggest appropriate solutions. After the release of the paper, the regulator engaged with multiple ministries/departments, private stakeholders and others to undertake a comprehensive review of end-to-end processes. After an extensive consultation process, TRAI has released its recommendations with the aim to adopt a process-based approach for improving the ease of doing business and create an ecosystem that enables periodic reviews and reforms.
A look at TRAI’s key recommendations in this regard…
Establishment of a single-window system
The foremost requirement for achieving ease of doing business is the establishment of a fully operational online single-window system. The portal should serve as a one-stop digital platform for obtaining all clearances and approvals for business operations. With such a single window in place, the fundamental principles of predictability, transparency and certainty can be effectively ensured.
In line with these principles, TRAI recommends that all the concerned ministries/departments should adopt a user-friendly, transparent and responsive digital single-window portal. This portal should provide an easy-to-navigate mechanism for accessing all statutory/policy guidelines, amendments, orders, office memorandums related to licences, registrations, permissions and clearances. Further, it should be enabled with new digital technologies to facilitate end-to-end inter-departmental online processes. Moreover, TRAI recommends that each ministry and its department should establish an Ease of Doing Business Committee to regularly review, simplify and update the existing processes, improving the ease of doing business in the sector.
Grant of permissions by DoT
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is the nodal ministry responsible for issuing various licences, permissions, registrations and approvals to service providers of the telecom fraternity. While the majority of permissions are granted by the DoT headquarters, some are processed through the licensed service area (LSA) units of DoT. After the introduction of the unified licence regime, several individual licences have been merged into a unified licence (UL).
In an effort to digitalise the process of granting approvals and licences, DoT launched the Saral Sanchar portal on November 15, 2018. However, the sector still faces certain issues with regard to the issuance of UL. For one, service providers are required to demonstrate lawful interception capabilities for each new service when applying for a licence. To this end, TRAI recommends that the lawful interception monitoring of a new service in a single network may take place centrally at one LSA/location. Further, it suggests that DoT should designate a nodal office to handle cases where the same technical parameters are used for a new service across multiple LSAs, utilising a common network.
Another key issue relates to the minimum roll-out obligations associated with spectrum allocations. To this end, TRAI recommends that there should be a module in the single-window portal to comply with the end-to-end requirements of the roll-out obligation process. Further, timelines should be prescribed for each step of the process.
The UL also prescribes certain security conditions that are applicable to all authorisations as well as some authorisation-specific conditions. Some of the common security conditions are remote access permissions, the maintenance of command logs, supply chain documentation, and software upgrade notifications. In this regard, TRAI suggests that the process of requesting remote access to a network from foreign locations, and obtaining approval from DoT should be conducted online and adhere to specified time frames.
DoT is responsible for granting permissions for the installation and repair of submarine cables, optical fibre and cable landing stations, etc. These cables are vulnerable to damage by accidental and malicious threats, which can result in costly and widespread disruptions in communication. Faults in cable communications should be immediately mitigated to ensure business continuity. However, in India, the process for obtaining permissions for laying and repairing submarine cables is considered cumbersome. To this end, TRAI recommends that the laying and repair of submarine cables in Indian territorial waters and exclusive economic zones as well as cable landing stations should be classified as “critical and essential services”. It should be given “top priority” for obtaining necessary permissions and security clearances from the ministries/departments/agencies involved. The permission for laying, operations and maintenance of the submarine cables network should also be made available online as part of the Saral Sanchar portal.
Another key issue raised by stakeholders is the timely and efficient process for surrendering a licence and obtaining a no-objection certificate (NOC). Stakeholders mentioned that this whole process takes over two years. To this end, TRAI recommends that the process of surrendering a licence, issuing the NOC and releasing bank guarantees to service providers should be made simple, online and time-bound.
With regard to testing of telecom equipment, TRAI recommends that a committee should be constituted by the Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) for the Mandatory Testing Certification of Telecom Equipment scheme. This committee should consist of two members each from the TEC, original equipment manufacturer, information and communication technology (ICT) service provider, the telecom and broadcasting sector and consumers of the product. The members of the committee should be appointed on a rotational basis, each serving a specific tenure. The committee should identify a single testing scheme under which the product needs to be tested.
Measures recommended for other ministries involved in telecom services
In addition to DoT, some more permissions and clearances are required from other ministries and departments. For instance, the Department of Space (DoS) is responsible for the space segment. To this end, TRAI recommends that DoT portals should be end-to-end integrated with DoS and fully functional for all services requiring space segment. Further, DoS should publish a list of Indian satellites details and the capacity availability and approved foreign satellites/satellite systems, their orbital locations, transponders and frequency availability and their other technical and security parameters on the single window portal. The regulator emphasises the need for the government to develop a roadmap for the launch of communication satellites and the availability of domestic satellite capacities in India to facilitate service licensees to plan and optimise their capacity procurement.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is the nodal ministry responsible for compulsory registration, certification and surveillance of ICT products. Since these ICT products are also deployed in telecom, the certification process concerns the sector as well. Manufacturers of electronics products are required to apply for registration under the Certification of Compulsory Registration Scheme (CRS) from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) after getting their product tested from BIS-recognised labs. To ease the process, TRAI recommends that MeitY, in consultation with the BIS, should define stage-wise timelines for registration under the CRS in respect of product certification.
With regard to the Ministry of Power, responsible for providing power to various sectors including the telecom industry, TRAI has examined the challenges faced by various service providers in obtaining stable and quality power supply connections from power discoms. After consulting with stakeholders, TRAI recommends that discoms should make provisions to provide connections for telecom sites on a priority basis. The timeline for providing the connection should be fixed (preferably 15 days) and monitored through a portal. TRAI reiterates that the government should consider passing all possible benefits related to the deployment of renewable energy technology (RET) to the service providers as per the existing government schemes. The government may also consider incentivising RET solutions.
The way forward
In many scenarios, the ease of doing business is reflected in business-friendly policies, regulations and processes as well as a conducive environment for investors and entrepreneurs. While many policies have been announced for facilitating investment in the telecom sector, effective implementation is important to improve investor perception and confidence. Moreover, enabling stakeholder engagement is expected to unlock additional potential in the Indian communication space, particularly when the global community is seeking new investment opportunities. Therefore, expeditious implementation of these recommendations will foster the growth of the sector.
Kuhu Singh Abbhi
