The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said on Monday that no additional spectrum would be offered to wireless-in-local-loop limited mobility operators on their migration to a unified licence. WLL operators are currently allocated 5 Mhz spectrum for offering limited mobility services.

Also Read Trai recommends single licensing system

In one of the biggest bailout exercises for the telecom industry after the New Telecom Policy, 1999, the Trai also did away with the village telephony obligations of basic operators migrating to a unified licence regime.

Despite fierce opposition from cellular operators, Trai suggested immediate unification of basic and cellular licences.

It added that the larger goal of unifying all telecom services would be taken up over the next six months after detailed analysis.

"The present system of licensing should be replaced by unified licensing. The objective of a unified licence regime is to be achieved through a two-stage process. In the first phase, there will be an unified access regime for basic and cellular players. This will be followed by a process to define the guidelines and rules for a fully unified licence regime," Trai said in its recommendations to the government.

To decide on the benchmark for the unification of cellular and basic licences, Trai had suggested three methods. The first involves open bidding for bringing in more mobile operators as an alternative to unification of cellular and basic licences.

The other involves asking basic service operators to pay the difference between the average entry fee paid by the first and second cellular operators and the entry fee paid by basic service operators.

The third alternative is to charge basic operators the same entry fee charged from the fourth cellular operator. Trai has favoured the third option.

Trai has also suggested that cellular operators need not be compensated for allowing mobility to WLL operators.

In the final phase, the unified licence regime will be implemented through the automatic route. Any operator will be able to offer any type of service anywhere in the country using any technology. The operator will be required to approach the licensor mainly for spectrum allocation.