Telecom Commission to Monitor TRAI Closely

Recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) would now mandatorily have to be routed via the Telecom Commission (TC), the highest decision-making body in the department of telecommunications (DoT). The objective is to ensure a decisive response within a defined time frame.According to a recent communication from the DoT, all policy recommendations would immediately be referred to the Telecom Commission member concerned or the additional secretary in DoT. After which, the DoT’s view need to be placed before the telecom secretary for approval, within 60 days of the receipt of Trai’s recommendations.

Simultaneously, DoT ruled out the proposed change to the Trai Act for speedy action. As Trai can file recommendations suo motu or when instructed by the government, it will not be possible always to take a view in a prescribed time frame, since the need and complexity of the subject matter will determine the time required, stated the communication from DoT.

In the past, there have been instances such as Trai’s recommendation on Code Division Multiple Access spectrum pricing, where the DoT and the regulator did not agree, and the final call is yet to be taken by the DoT. In such cases, time-frame can be set and extended as required.