On May 2, 2023, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released recommendations on the 'Ease of Doing Business [EoDB] in Telecom and Broadcasting Sector'. This is a follow-up on the consultation paper TRAI floated in December 2021. Some of the key recommendations are as follows: A single portal system should be established to obtain all clearances and approvals. Each ministry should create its own EoDB Committees so that the process of EoDB can be reviewed and evolved continuously. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), Department of Space (DoS), Department of Telecommunications, and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) should create clear timelines for all processes and add them to the Citizen Charter. Reducing compliance burden on internet service providers (ISPs) by creating a single portal for website blocking requests. Revising the periodicity for submission of details about ISP Nodes or Points of Presence (PoP) such as their locations and the number of subscribers to once every year. An update on the terms and conditions of the DoT Unified license so that the monitoring and interception of their services take place at one central licensed service area (LSA). TRAI also recommends that DoT should consider creating a static IP-based secure access system to seamlessly access such data of the service providers. A provision of a single window portal to comply with the end-to-end requirements of the rollout obligation process. TRAI also suggests that requests for remote access to the network from foreign locations should be time-bound. Why it…
