New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has released a consultation paper on “Ease of Doing Business in Telecom and Broadcasting Sector”.

The industry stakeholders can send their comments by 5 January 2022, and counter comments can be submitted by 19 January 2022.

The regulatory body highlighted that the telecommunication and broadcasting sectors have emerged as key drivers of economic and social development and has made the country a favorite business destination amongst investors. According to Trai, both the sectors have immense potential to move on the higher trajectory of growth, "if business environment could be made more attractive by simplifying the existing provisions of policy frameworks in various ministries and departments including the ministry of information and broadcasting, department of telecommunications, ministry of electronics and information technology involved in issuing permission, registrations, and licenses to the players of the sector.”

It said that the larger aim behind floating this consultation paper is to identify various concerns in the existing processes and suggest measures for the reforms required in the regulatory processes, policies, practices and procedures in the telecom and broadcasting sector for creating a conducive business environment in India.

The consultation paper also seeks comments of the stakeholders on various issues and difficulties being faced by them in commencement and operation of their businesses in telecom and broadcasting sectors in the country.

It also seeks suggestions on measures for making the existing processes simple, business friendly and creating an ecosystem for attracting more and more investment in the sectors. It also emphasises the single window concept for submitting applications and getting approvals from different agencies without running to each agency separately for its approval.

Suggestions are also invited on simplifying the applications which have just the required details for the conduct of business and well-documented timelines with query response systems, having seamless integration with other ministries, etc. Apart from that, the stakeholders have also been requested to provide their comments on adoption of new technologies for all the issues raised in this consultation paper.