NEW DELHI, India—The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended unlimited competition in international long-distance telephony (ILD) and fixed the entry fee at a relatively low 250 million rupees (US$5.2 million) and an annual revenue share of 15 percent.
Leading cellular operators plan to enter the arena of international long distance. “We welcome the guidelines. We will apply for the ILD license as soon as details are available from the department of telecom,” commented Sunil Mittal, chairman of the Bharti Group.
Private operators will also be allowed to set up their own gateways and offer Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services over their networks.
Besides the entry fee, operators will have to furnish a bank guarantee of 250 million rupees, and they must have a net worth of the same amount. The license would be valid for 20 years, extendable by another five years. For domestic long-distance, the terms are stricter—an entry fee of 1 billion rupees (US$20.9 million) and bank guarantee of 4 billion rupees (US$83.5 million).
