Due to a high entry fee imposed by The Department of Telecommunications, the rate of internet and broadband services may rise under the new licenses framework, as disclosed by ISPAI. According to the proposal, now a company will have to pay Rs 15 crore for a one time entry for a national level Unifies License, which the company previously used to pay Rs 30 Lakh for.
The proposed format of Unified License regime is not a new step at all that has been taken by DoT, however the body is planning to go ahead with the old license format along with a new national Unified License which will cost Rs 15 crore.
ISPAI President Rajesh Charia commented that if the Unified License was adopted by internet service providers then the cost of internet and broadband services would rise eventually.
Considering the new licensing regime, DoT should permit internet telephony which will lead to low cost call service that will hopefully benefit even a rural area of the country where the literacy rate is very low.
VoIP is a majorly known application and many foreign companies provide voice calling services but they are not registered with DoT. They don’t have a license as well but at least we pay an annual charge to DoT and therefore should be allowed to provide voice services, he added.
An internal committee of DoT has given a proposal to allow ISPs with wireless broadband spectrum to provide voice telephony services using airwaves.
It has been submitted to higher authorities to decide if players who won BWA spectrum in 2010 should be asked to make an additional payment of Rs 1,658 crore which was charged from telecom players till 2008 for providing mobile telephony.
The issued license to mobile telephony operators was at a cost of Rs 1,658 had 4.4 Mhz spectrum attached to it but the government however decided to provide no spectrum with a Unified License.
