Telecom department aims to clear Trai recommendations by March end

The department of telecommunications (DoT) aims to clear by March end backlog of all recommendations sent by the sector watchdog Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) till December 31, 2017.

“By end of March 2018, we would be able to take account of all consultation processes presented to us by Trai till December 31, 2017,” DoT Special Secretary N Sivasailam Thursday said.

The department, after the recent direction from the Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha, swung into action as industry players were blaming the department of lackluster attitude towards accepting regulator’s proposals.

“Lot of these recommendations are already under various stages of consideration,” the top official said.

Some of the key proposals that are likely to be finalized and taken to the Telecom Commission, the highest decision making body of the DoT, would include ease of doing business, Net Neutrality, cloud telephony and public Wi-Fi hotspots.

The government, according to Sivasailam, will take up a comprehensive list for consideration that would also include setting up of ombudsman as well as proposals for E and V bands, Right-of-Way and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communications.

Last month, a Parliamentary panel has already expressed concern over government’s delay in setting up of an ombudsman in order to deal with consumer grievances in the telecom sector despite regulator’s recommendations.

“The idea is to take them (proposals) up and make them capable and processed to take up the Telecom Commission,” the official added.