The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has favored the existing variable license fee structure for all Indian telecom operators. The statement from TRAI has come following the decision by the Department of Telecom (DoT) to adopt a uniform license fee structure.

The DoT has decided to replace existing variable license fee with a uniform license fee of 8.5 per cent for all types of telecom service providers.

The telecom regulator has advised the government to consult it before finalizing it. According to TRAI, the uniform license fee structure would affect the government's revenue and business of telecom operators, which would ultimately impact subscribers.

According to DoT, the current variable license fee system has many loopholes and operators are likely to take advantage of these ambiguities by producing wrong financial reports. So, a proper system is required to get replaced with a uniform license fee structure.

The proposed change by DoT is expected to affect telecom service providers in category ‘C’ circles. The DoT said that it had taken in account the fact that operators had taken arbitrage by loading up maximum revenues on licenses with lower fee.