Wednesday, November 23, 2011

National Telecom Policy

The draft National Telecom Policy-2011 (NTP-2011) has been announced by Minister of Communications and Information Technology on 10th October 2011 and has been put in public domain for wider consultation.

The vision of draft National Telecom Policy-2011 states “to provide to the people of India a secure, reliable, affordable and high quality converged telecommunication services anytime, anywhere”. A copy of draft NTYP-2011 is available on the Department of Telecom website and it incorporates and outlines various objectives and strategies for bringing in transparency and furthering the interests of users/consumers.

Wide ranging consultations were held with various stake-holders including telecom industry for the formulation of draft NTP-2011. Four round-table conferences on National Broadband Plan, Licensing Framework and Spectrum Management, Issues related to Promotion of Manufacturing of Telecom Equipment in the country and with Consumer User Groups of Telecom and Consumer Forums were also held with the stakeholders. Views and suggestions so received have been taken into consideration by the committee constituted for the purpose while finalizing the draft NTP-2011. The suggestions from various stakeholders including telecom industry on draft NTP-2011 are being received. The last date for receiving suggestions/comments is 9th December 2011. The same will be analysed and taken into consideration by the government before finalizing NTP-2011.

There is a proposal in the draft NTP-2011 to review roaming charges with the ultimate objective of removing the roaming charge across the nation. One of the objectives of the draft NTP-2011 is to achieve ‘One Nation – Full Mobile Number Portability and work toward One Nation – Free Roaming’. After the receipt of feedback, and their due consideration, NTP-2011 would be approved by the competent authority. Implementation would commence thereafter.

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