MUMBAI: The   Telecom  Regulatory  Authority  of India  (TRAI) which had issued  a  consultation paper  on   ‘Delinking  of   the  license  for networks from delivery of service by  way  of virtual network operators (VNO)’ on 5 December 2014 inviting comments by 5 January 2015, has today given some relief to the stakeholders.

The decision was taken after the stakeholders requested for extension of the date for sending their inputs/comments so as to give a comprehensive response to the paper.  The Authority has considered their request and has extended the last date for submission of written comments to 15 January 2015.  TRAI has also said that there will be no further extension of date for submission of comments.

The Authority has asked all stakeholders to submit their inputs/comments on or before the revised date i.e. 15 January 2015 and counter comments, if any, by 22 January 2015.    

TRAI had issued the consultation paper to know if there was any need to introduce more competition in service delivery by the way of introduction of VNO and whether this will pose any threat to Network Service Operators (NSO).

 In its consultation paper, the Authority had also asked how Mergers & Acquisitions should be dealt with in the VNO/NSO licensing model and should the recently announced M&A guidelines issued by the Government for existing players be extended to cover VNOs.

Prior to the consultation paper, TRAI had released a pre-consultation paper on "Delinking of the license for  networks from delivery of  services by  way of  Virtual Network Operators" on 3 September 2014 highlighting some of the issues associated with the proposed licensing framework by the DoT and had solicited inputs and comments of the  stakeholders on these issues or any other issues involved in the proposed  framework.