Despite that the assurances of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s to the telecom industry that the sector will see a major turn-around soon, industry body GSM Association feels that foreign acquisitions and investments are not as focused on India as in the past, reports PTI.

GSMA D-G Anne Bouverot told PTI that regulatory environment in the country has forced operators and investors to look towards countries like Burma.

Explaining that that reasons for this are both economic and the regulatory, she said that operators today.

“It is the time when overall operators are saying we need to be careful about our finances and at the same time regulations have become more onerous. It (regulations) has been more taxing on operators and also less predictable, she was quoted by PTI as saying. 

Last week Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday assured the industry, particularly the investors that government has taken a number of forward looking initiatives in the telecom sector clarify the policy positions on a number of complex issues.

He said policy regime that is likely to be put in place soon will address, and address effectively, the concerns that have been worrying investors and will provide a new impetus to the growth of telecommunication industry in the country.

Some of the key activities proposed to be completed by February 2013 are approval of policy on spectrum assignment and pricing, approval of Unified licensing regime, approval of M&A guidelines, finalisation of guidelines for spectrum sharing, creation of fund for R&D and manufacturing, Mobile Number Portability on a nationwide basis, removing roaming charges across India and coverage of the remaining inhabited villages in the North Eastern states.