TRAI not is favour of exit policy for telcos

New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday said companies exiting the telecommunication sector need not to be refunded their entry fee and a separate policy to help them move out is not necessary.

"There is no need for a separate exit policy and that the entry fee paid will continue to be non-refundable," TRAI said in its draft response to 'Exit Policy for Various Telecom Licenses'.

The exit policy was to be created for categories like the 122 UAS license given on or after January 10, 2008, licences given prior to January 10, 2008 and all other licence and future licences.

"The provision for surrender of license is already prescribed in the draft guidelines. As such, the Authority (TRAI) does not find any justification for a separate exit policy in case of Unified Licensing Regime," TRAI said.

TRAI said that there is already provision for the telecoms service providers to surrender licence by giving a prior notice.

"The notice period is 60 days in most of the licenses," TRAI said.

"The framing of exit policy for various telecom licenses essentially involves the issue of full or partial refund of the entry fee and bank guarantees," TRAI said.

The regulator said that there is no need for framing exit policy for 122 UAS licence given on or after January 10, 2008 as Supreme Court has cancelled these licenses.

Licences like National Long Distance, Internet service provider etc carry low entry fee and have option to surrender their licence after giving notice.

"Therefore, there seems to be no need for separate exit policy for such licenses," TRAI said.

The Regulator said that in case of future licences it has already said that all future licences will be Unified Licences and entry fee for pan-India licence is only Rs 20 crore.