In a bid to boost India as a hub of wireless innovation, the government on Tuesday launched an online application through which all approvals for using airwaves to conduct experiments and demonstrations could come through within six to eight weeks.
“The scope of existing Saral Sanchar Portal of DoT, on which application for Access Services, Internet Services and other licenses are being received, was expanded for receipt, processing and grant of licenses for spectrum to conduct experiment, demonstration, testing, manufacturing,” a statement issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said on Tuesday.
Once live, the portal will facilitate faceless permissions for equipment type approval, satellite licenses and amateur licenses. Until now applications had to be manually approved by the wireless planning and coordination wing of the DoT.
Anshu Prakash, secretary, DoT said the rationale for the move was to boost the ecosystem of design and applications in wireless technologies as all approvals will now be bundled together.
Permissions in the form of licenses will include the clearances for possessing wireless equipment, import of necessary modules & subsystems and demonstration of R&D products.
An applicant will have to file a self-declaration for the instant issue of licenses for indoor experimentation (R&D), indoor demonstration and manufacturing.
Once approved, just one license which would include all the previous licensing requirements of use of spectrum, import of related products and sub- assemblies, demonstration, and possession of wireless equipment will be granted.
For all outdoor radiating licences, an approval will be deemed within 6 to 8 weeks of the application and airwaves will be offered on “non-interference and non- protection basis” and on “no commercial services”, possibly implying no fees to be paid to the government.
The government statement said these measures would facilitate the Indian companies to strengthen R&D and manufacturing ecosystem and for creating Indian IPRs and global solutions.