TelecomLive April-2020

Bypassing licensing regime, unfairly Telecom LIVE April 2020 16 www.telecomlive.com (VNOs), Cloud Service Providers, M2M Service Providers, Multi- System Operator (MSOs), Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), M2M connectivity providers etc. for building their networks. Other Service Providers (OSPs) regis- tered by DoT for providing application services like tele- banking, telemedicine, tele- trading, e-commerce, call centers, can also get the services directly from IP-I. They are also being allowed to import all types of wireless equipment, which only telecom service providers (TSPs) could do. Surprisingly, IP-I registrants will not have to pay anything. They are not required to pay any license fee, no entry fee and they do not have to face auctions. They just have to pay Rs 5,000 as application fee to DoT to get themselves registered. That is it. With this meager amount of payments, they can take away the creamy (enterprises) business of TSPs. Apparently, Anshu Prakash, telecom secretary is very enthusi- astic about these recommenda- tions which is said to be the brainchild of SK Gupta, secretary of Trai. This they are doing it in the name of 5G rollouts. However, this has far reaching implications on spectrum auction price. If DoT implements Trai's recommenda- rai has come out with T its recommendations on the “Enhancement of Scope of Infra- structure Providers Category-I (IP-I) Registration” (see box at pg 18-19). Trai has allowed IP-I registrants owning and sharing of active infrastruc- ture with any licensed service providers (barring licensed spectrum and core network). It has been allowed to apply and get unlicensed spectrum from DoT for establishing transmission links. It has also allowed IP-I registrants to provide services to all premium enterprises customers directly such as Virtual Network Operators Bypassing licensing regime, unfairly Trai recommends active infra sharing for IP-I