Government May Revamp Trai As Permanent Technical Body: Report

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), may become a permanent technical body according to a separate draft law that the government might introduce.

With this, the regulator will get more authority and will be able to penalise companies that do not uphold quality standards, similar to the UK and US communications authorities such as Ofcom and Federal Communications Commissions (FCC),  Mint reported citing a top official. 

The official also said the controversial provisions concerning the dilution of the telecom regulator's power would be removed from the proposed telecom bill.

The draft telecom bill proposed to eliminate parts of the Trai Act that provide checks and balances through a process of consultation between the regulator and the telecom department to which some argued that it will weaken Trai's effectiveness and reduce it to an advisory body.

According to some reports, Trai was uncomfortable with the amendments that were being considered for the draft telecom bill.

However, officers from the telecom department and members of Trai were able to amicably resolve their differences after conducting several meetings over the past few weeks to discuss the issues.

“It’s been decided that we wait for the bill to be absorbed by the industry and come up with a new bill for Trai after three to four years. Therefore, we have removed almost all of the amendments," Mint quoted an official as saying.