New Telecom Policy Highlights-VRK100-14Oct2011

New Telecom Policy Highlights

Rama Krishna Vadlamudi, HYDERABAD       14 October 2011
www.ramakrishnavadlamudi.blogspot.com

Highlights of the Draft New Telecom Policy 2011 released by Kapil Sibal, India’s Communications & IT minister on 10 October 2011:

ü     Roaming charges will be abolished across India – free incoming calls and outgoing calls at normal rates anywhere in the country

ü     Mobile Number Portability (MNP) will be allowed between circles

ü     Users moving from once circle to another can carry their numbers

ü     Spectrum pooling, trading and sharing will be allowed

ü     Unrestricted net telephony will be allowed

ü     Broadband penetration will be increased with broadband speeds of at least 512 kbps

ü     The policy aims for giving infrastructure status to the telecom industry

ü     Spectrum will be delinked from licensing as per the draft policy

ü     Single unified license will be given across all circles and services

ü     The policy envisages connecting all villages by optical fibre by 2014

ü     Additional 300 Mhz spectrum for 3G by 2017 and 200 Mhz by 2020

ü     However, the draft policy is criticized for being silent on the timelines for implementation of the proposed measures and for not spelling out any details on 2G spectrum pricing and merger and acquisition rules.

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