Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has extended the date for comments on a consultation Paper on ‘Promoting Networking and Telecom Equipment Manufacturing in India’ to April 1.

Earlier, the last date was March 11 for submissions, while the counter-comments were to be submitted by March 25, 2022.

“Keeping in view the requests received from stakeholders for extension of time for submission of comments, as the issue requires wider consultation and opinions from experts/ analysts and their difficulties in providing their feedback by the stipulated timeline, it has been decided to extend the last date for submission,” TRAI said Friday.

The counter comments, now, could be submitted by April 18.

In a background note to the consultation paper, TRAI had said the rapidly growing number of mobile phone users and the impending technological shift towards 5G is likely to be key catalysts to fuel the market growth of hardware manufacturing in India.

Advancements in wireless communication infrastructure have already uplifted the demand for advanced NATE such as mobile radio access network, microwave transmission, IP telephony, optical transport, mobile backhaul, carrier ethernet switches, routers, wireless packet core, etc. 5G network deployments mandate high speed all-pervasive broadband, Internet-of-Things (IOT), Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication and digitalization of societies.

The exponentially increasing market, propelled by the emerging 5G technology, provides tremendous opportunities for equipment manufacturers to grow into a potent player in the telecom universe. “It becomes necessary for a country to have an agile manufacturing setup for NATE so that value addition to the economy can be maximized,” the regulator had observed while seeking comments from stakeholders.