India’s radio industry body has called for the speedy roll-out of Phase III of private radio licensing in a reply to the country’s media regulator.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) asked for comments about plans to auction as many as 839 new FM frequencies, expanding covering of private radio from 87 to 313 cities.

Under Phase III, radio licencees will likely receive 15 rather than 10 year licences.

Responding to TRAI’s request, the Association of Radio Operators India (AROI) called for the new licences to be enacted once the current 10 year Phase II licences had ended.

AROI said that all operators had paid fees in advance for that period and most are still running into losses or just reaching break even.

The industry body also hit out about the calculation of the proposed migration fees for Phase III claiming that the remaining frequencies in major markets would cost too much and create an uneven basis for competition.

AROI called for the fees to be set at whatever the average bids for Phase II licences were in each city or be equal to the highest of the Phase 2 bids in each city.

According to local media, one radio network Reliance Broadcast Network called for the immediate raising of the foreign direct investment limit to 49 percent from the current 21 percent.