Sibal to unveil draft National Telecom Policy 2011
October 9th, 2011 - 2:32 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, Oct 9 (IANS) Amid rising concerns and lawsuits over allocation of telecom spectrum, a precious national resource, Communications Minister Kapil Sibal will Monday unveil a draft of the new telecom policy that will focus on transparency and quick decision-making.
The last telecom policy was unveiled over a decade ago in 1999 when India’s phone subscribers base was barely a couple of million. It has since grown to nearly 900 million as of July.
Sibal has already said that one of the key issues is to de-link the award of telecom operator licence from the allocation of airwaves since the bundling of these two had invited criticism and a spate of legal disputes.
The policy also comes against the backdrop of the arrest of the former telecom minister A. Raja for his policy on 2G spectrum which the government auditor says had resulted in presumptive losses worth billions of dollars to the exchequer.
The new telecom policy may also come out with more benefits for consumers like removal of roaming charges within the country. This move will increase the number of calls by subscribers out of their home circle, helping mobile service providers increase revenues.
Also on the cards is a stronger customer grievance addressal mechanism.
- Transparency promised in full 'spectrum' of new telecom policy (Roundup) - Oct 10, 2011
- Licenses, spectrum de-linked in new telecom policy - Apr 11, 2011
- New telecom policy to make India roaming-free (Roundup) - May 31, 2012
- Termination action on 35 telecom licenses by March - Nov 18, 2011
- New telecom policy to be unveiled in January - Nov 04, 2011
- Cabinet likely to discuss National Telecom Policy Thursday - May 24, 2012
- Free roaming, high broadband speeds in new telecom policy - Oct 10, 2011
- NDA regime first deviated on spectrum policy: Sibal (Roundup) - Feb 04, 2011
- Industry welcomes draft National Telecom Policy 2011 - Oct 10, 2011
- 2G loss calculation depends on methodology: PM - Feb 16, 2011
- New telecom policy to be announced by October: Sibal - Jul 25, 2011
- Spectrum audit, merger reforms in new telecom policy (Lead) - Apr 11, 2011
- Licensing norms tougher in India's new telecom policy - Jan 29, 2011
- Spectrum policy deviations began under NDA in 2003: Sibal - Feb 04, 2011
- Sibal says $40 bn spectrum loss estimate 'utterly erroneous' - Jan 07, 2011
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