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TRAI rejects DoT proposal of entry fee on ISPs

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CIOL Bureau
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NEW DELHI, INDIA: India's telecom regulator, The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI), rejected on Tuesday the proposal of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that a higher entry fee at par with the telecom operators should be charged from the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) for providing unlimited telephony within the country.

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The DoT, in a letter to the telecom regulator, had shown apprehensions about maintaining a level-playing field for the telecom players, if ISPs are allowed to provide unlimited telephony within the country due to difference in the licence and entry fee between the two.

The telecom players also had supported the DoT stand.

But in its reply TRAI said: "Any direct comparison of access service providers (telecom companies) and ISPs, due to vast difference in privileges, services, and resources given to them under their respective licenses does not seem to be desirable."

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TRAI also reiterated its earlier recommendation that the Government should open up Internet telephony to enable consumers to make voice calls using the Internet and said that DoT should not charge entry fee from ISPs since there was no spectrum being allocated to them.

Meanwhile, the The Internet Services Providers' Association of India (ISPAI), welcomed the TRAI stand on net telephony.

The unrestricted Internet Telephony services was allowed to UASL from 14.12.2005 and to CMTS from 6.2.2006 but not started by the Service Providers even after the lapse of 3 years, it said in a statement.

Hence restrictions imposed on ISPs must be withdrawn so that such innovative services can reach to common masses, said ISPAI.

It observed that artificial restrictions on availability of innovative user friendly services give birth to grey market operations, which are detrimental to national security as well as robs the government of its rightful revenue.

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