Telecom regulator Trai on Tuesday recommended a cut in the entry fee for mobile and other telecom service licences and favoured the merging of bank guarantees, to facilitate the entry of new players.

The entry fee for the telecom circle/metro area should be reduced to Rs 50 lakh from Rs 1 crore in case of access service.

The fee should be reduced to Rs 25 lakh from Rs 50 lakh for J&K and North East, the regulator said in the recommendations on ‘‘Rationalisation of Entry Fee and Bank Guarantees.’’

For national and international long-distance, the fee should be reduced to Rs 50 lakh from Rs 2.5 crore.

In public mobile radio trunking service (PMRTS), it suggested the fee be brought down to Rs 20,000 from Rs 50,000 for each telecom circle/metro area.

It should be Rs 10 lakh (Rs 30 lakh previously)
for internet service providers in the national area.

The regulator recommended an entry fee of Rs 50,000 (Rs 2 lakh) for ISP category B in each telecom circle and Rs 25,000 each for Jammu and Kashmir and North-East.

Trai has also recommended no entry fee at the time of renewal of the licence.

Financial bank guarantee (FBG) and performance bank guarantee (PBG) should be merged into a single bank guarantee for securitising the dues,to cover the violation of license conditions .

Trai recommended merging of FBG and PBG for mobile number portability license into a single bank guarantee, and favoured submission of an electronic bank guarantee (eBG).