The telecom industry has prepared its wish list for the next communications minister, with speedy introduction of spectrum trading and sharing policies and favourable merger and acquisition rules topping the demands. The list of demands also includes improved availability of airwaves, lower spectrum usage fees and other levies as well as policies that give a fillip to local manufacturing of telecom equipment.
The industry wants the annual payout to the Universal Services Obligation Fund to be progressively reduced to one per cent of revenue from the present five per cent. The fund is primarily used for providing connectivity in places where commercial operations may not be viable. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI)wants airwave allotment to be comprehensively restructured to pave the way for continuous, or contiguous, spectrum allocations.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.