NEW DELHI: All radio waves will be awarded through auction and will be de-linked from licenses, unlike the existing policy wherein spectrum comes bundled with the licenses.
Under the new telecom policy approved by the Union Cabinet yesterday, there is proposal for liberalization of spectrum, under which the telecommunication service providers will be allowed to offer any technology and service.
The policy is also an effort by the Government to overcome the negative publicity it received following the 2G spectrum scam and reports of a potential revenue loss of Rs 1.76 trillion to the exchequer by not auctioning the radio bandwidth.
The policy had been placed before the Cabinet a week earlier but could not be taken up as Information and Broadcasting Ministry Ambika Soni felt that with spectrum going to the Information Technology Ministry, the issue of licences to radio and television may also be affected. There were fears that broadcasting may come under the jurisdiction of the IT Ministry, sources told Radioandmusic.com.
Repositioning of the mobile phone as an instrument of empowerment, “Broadband For All” at a minimum download speed of 2 Mbps, convergence of network, services and devices and liberalisation of spectrum are some of the salient points of the National Telecom Policy and Unified Licensing Regime for 2012.
The Policy effectively replaces the NTP of 1999 as it marks various departures from the existing policy.
The policy seeks to provide a predictable and stable policy regime for a period of about ten years. It will be operationalized by bringing out detailed guidelines, as may be considered appropriate, from time to time.
Implementation will enable smooth implementation of the policies for providing an efficient telecommunication infrastructure taking into account the primary objective of maximizing public good by empowering the people of India.
The policy will further enable taking suitable facilitatory measures to encourage existing service providers to rapidly migrate to the new regime in a uniformly liberalised environment with a level playing field.
The policy envisions providing secure, reliable, affordable and high quality converged telecommunication services anytime, anywhere for an accelerated inclusive socio-economic development. The main thrust of the policy is on the multiplier effect and transformational impact of such services on the overall economy.
The aim is to increase rural teledensity from the current level of around 39 to 70 by the year 2017 and 100 by the year 2020.
Simplification of Licensing regime: Unified Licensing, delinking of Spectrum from License, Online real time submission and processing.
Consumer Focus: Achieve One Nation - Full Mobile Number Portability and work towards One Nation - Free Roaming; Resale of Services; Voice over Internet Protocol; and Cloud Computing with Next Generation Network including IPV6 are among the salient features of the new policy.
NEW DELHI: All radio waves will be awarded through auction and will be de-linked from licenses, unlike the existing policy wherein spectrum comes bundled with the licenses.
Under the new telecom policy approved by the Union Cabinet yesterday, there is proposal for liberalization of spectrum, under which the telecommunication service providers will be allowed to offer any technology and service.
The policy is also an effort by the Government to overcome the negative publicity it received following the 2G spectrum scam and reports of a potential revenue loss of Rs 1.76 trillion to the exchequer by not auctioning the radio bandwidth.
The policy had been placed before the Cabinet a week earlier but could not be taken up as Information and Broadcasting Ministry Ambika Soni felt that with spectrum going to the Information Technology Ministry, the issue of licences to radio and television may also be affected. There were fears that broadcasting may come under the jurisdiction of the IT Ministry, sources told Radioandmusic.com.
Repositioning of the mobile phone as an instrument of empowerment, “Broadband For All” at a minimum download speed of 2 Mbps, convergence of network, services and devices and liberalisation of spectrum are some of the salient points of the National Telecom Policy and Unified Licensing Regime for 2012.
The Policy effectively replaces the NTP of 1999 as it marks various departures from the existing policy.
The policy seeks to provide a predictable and stable policy regime for a period of about ten years. It will be operationalized by bringing out detailed guidelines, as may be considered appropriate, from time to time.
Implementation will enable smooth implementation of the policies for providing an efficient telecommunication infrastructure taking into account the primary objective of maximizing public good by empowering the people of India.
The policy will further enable taking suitable facilitatory measures to encourage existing service providers to rapidly migrate to the new regime in a uniformly liberalised environment with a level playing field.
The policy envisions providing secure, reliable, affordable and high quality converged telecommunication services anytime, anywhere for an accelerated inclusive socio-economic development. The main thrust of the policy is on the multiplier effect and transformational impact of such services on the overall economy.
The aim is to increase rural teledensity from the current level of around 39 to 70 by the year 2017 and 100 by the year 2020.
Simplification of Licensing regime: Unified Licensing, delinking of Spectrum
from License, Online real time submission and processing.
Consumer Focus: Achieve One Nation - Full Mobile Number Portability and work towards One Nation - Free Roaming; Resale of Services; Voice over Internet Protocol; and Cloud Computing with Next Generation Network including IPV6 are among the salient features of the new policy.
