Trai, DoT tussle over licence to access network providers

New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has shot back at the government for rejecting its recommendation on the creation of a separate category of licence for providing network services on a wholesale basis, and reiterated its views.

Trai said a separate licence for access network providers (ANPs) could attract investment and strengthen the service delivery segment. “With the deployment of 5G technology at the cusp, there will be different use cases covering almost all the economic verticals,” Trai said in its back reference to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

The regulator in August 2021 had recommended “enabling unbundling of different layers through differential licensing” through the creation of ANPs.