The Telecom Commission has given its nod to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) proposals on mergers and acquisitions rules. This was announced by the Telecom secretary R Chandrasekhar on Monday.

One of the major decisions that the commission has taken is the allocation of spectrum through auction. Apart from this, in one of the major policy changes it has also decided to fix the uniform licence fee of 8 percent for telecom companies from a current 6-10 percent while on the contentious issue of one-time fee for extra spectrum it did not rule out imposing a one-time fee on operators holding spectrum beyond 6.2 mega hertz.

Talking to reporters Chandrasekhar said that the commission has also given go-ahead to the TRAI’s proposals on mergers and acquisitions rules for the companies with combined entity and a market share of under 35%. TRAI will ensure that it remains between 35- 60 percent.

The telecom sector in the country has witnessed fierce competition among more than a dozen operators fighting for the space. This has resulted in lowering of tariff and dwindling profits. The new rules on mergers and acquisitions will facilitate the operators.

He also said that the commission has also paved the way to TRAI’s proposal to allow operators to share radio spectrum.