The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has extended the date for submission of comments on its proposal to regulate mobile Value Added Services in the country, to the 23rd of August 2011. Please submit your comments to the TRAI at advbbpa@trai.gov.in or bbpa@trai.gov.in. Download the consultation paper here. They're seeking answers to just 10 questions, so do write to them. We've just completed our recommendations for submission (since the today was supposed to be the deadline). Click here to download our recommendations. The executive summary is below, but we've explained our rationale for the recommendations, and specific responses to the 10 questions in the document. We're open to feedback and suggestions for changes from you, our readers, so please feel free to write in. We'll submit the final recommendations next week. Executive Summary 1. MediaNama.com, the premier website for news and analysis of the digital ecosystem in India, welcomes the TRAI’s interest in ensuring the creation of a healthy and flourishing Mobile Value Added Services ecosystem, since this industry is an integral part of the nascent Digital ecosystem in the country, with the potential to impact the livelihood of hundreds of millions of individuals. 2. Mobile Value Added Services companies are currently operating as vendors to telecom operators, and the provisioning of their services and their fate is entirely in the control of the UASL/GSM/CDMA Access Service Providers. The MVAS business is already regulated by the authority through these Access Service Providers, and as such, we do not feel there…
