Trai moots 5 pc licence fee for Insat MSS service

Our eFE Bureau in New Delhi

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday forwarded its recommendations on licensing of INSAT Mobile Satellite System (MSS) reporting service, a new service that enables transmission of messages at low data rates to a central hub from a
handheld terminal using satellite, to the government.

Deciding to treat INSAT MSS as a new service, the TRAI said that market forces would determine the number of players unless spectrum becomes a constraint.

It has recommended doing away with entry fee “in view of the service being a new service which should be promoted” and the assessment that there is unlikely to be shortage of spectrum available for the service.”

A licence fee of 5 per cent of revenues has been recommended for the first two years, which would be a contribution towards the Universal Service Obligation. The licence fee will be reviewed after the 2-year period.

To eliminate non-serious players from the market, a performance bank guarantee of Rs 2 lakh has to be furnished, This would be encashed if commercial launch of service by the licensee is not made within six months of grant of licence, a TRAI statement said.

The charges for spectrum and transponder will be decided by the wireless planning cell and the Department of space, it said.

For reporting the message received at the hub, TRAI opined that Internet connectivity could be provided. “However, the INSAT MSS reporting service provider should not be allowed connectivity to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN),” the TRAI said.

The licencees will have to comply with the security and monitoring requirements of other private sector licencees providing similar service like satphone and VSAT companies.

The recommendations of the TRAI will form the basis of the final government policy on INSAT MSS services.