Indian government’s Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has said on Friday that is considering floating a pre-consultation paper for the exit policy for the telecom operators in the country.

The authority said in statement that, "TRAI is contemplating to issue a consultation paper on exit policy for the telecom service providers who wish to exit from the business of the telecom service(s) for which they presently hold a license.”

The telecom department in India had asked TRAI last year to prepare a exit policy for telecom operators from for licensees of all types of licenses. The exit policy will be meant to guide operators who wish to exit from the business of providing services under a licence.

Under the current regulations, there is no exit policy except for Internet Service Providers (ISP) licenses. There were only provisions to surrender the licenses in the sector for service providers.

The telecom department had asked TRAI to lay down an exit policy in 2002. Some of the telecom operators were unable to rollout their services due to several reasons including shortage of funds and the telecom department decided to cancel the licences of those operators.

The new policy will allow operators to exit or withdraw from sectors where they are not able to expand services and avoid penalties and licence cancellations.