(13 February 2009 8:00 pm)

NEW DELHI: In a bid to boost the growth of value-added services, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has said that no separate category of licence or registration is required.

In its "Recommendations on growth of value added services and regulatory issues," the sector regulator has urged the need for uniformity in various licences and amendment of various access service licence agreements to pave way for the growth of Vas, particularly in mobile 2G/3G and next generation network environment.

Trai expects the Vas market in India to cross Rs 250 billion by 2009-10 and contribute over 30 of the revenue of the telecom access service providers in the next 5-7 years.

The regulator has said that content has to be subject to relevant regulation and compliance of prevailing copyrights including digital management rights and other laws on the subject.

In its recommendations, it has pointed out that there should be consistency in the treatment of content across all kinds of media including print, digital/multimedia to avoid any discrimination. It has also said it may issue guidelines on consumer best practices to protect the interest of consumers.

Trai has suggested that the definition of Vas be redefined as “Value added services are enhanced services, in the nature of non-core services, which add value to the basic teleservices and bearer services, the core services being standard voice calls, voice/non-voice messages, fax transmission and data transmission”.

Trai also said there is no pre-requisite for any licence or registration to acquire common short codes (CSCs) serving more than one access service provider.

The regulator feels the telecom access service providers need to provide fair access to their telecom infrastructure to independent content providers and maintain transparency in their management information system relating to Vas for reconciliation.