Summary

Telecom Reforms 2.0 to bailout the stressed and sinking telecom services sector by the central government, rightly termed as a bold “Atal Moment” equating the relief package with what was done in 1999 under the “New Telecom Policy-99”. The package, which was needed to help the telecom operators for their liquidity crunch, provided a moratorium for statutory and regulator payments for short term as well as objectively streamlined the AGR definition, the root-cause of everlasting litigation. The reforms also envisaged a number of long term concessions and reliefs as a part of this generous and much needed relief, including a reduction in the entry fees and bank guarantees (BGs) for operating licences, enhancing the FDI limit under Automatic route in Telecom services to 100%, rationalisation of Spectrum Usage Charge (SUC), etc.

But as they say, “the devil lies in the details”. In order to operationalise the various elements of the package for the targeted beneficiaries, necessary clarifications and understanding is required, through interpretation of the details by the domain experts. With this objective in mind, this interactive workshop is planned by inviting dignitaries and experts from TRAI, DOT, Academia, Industry and IAFI. You are requested to kindly participate and contribute in enriching the discussions.