They fear that in the event of three different departments or ministries of the government continuing to individually look at their respective areas, there could be absolute lack of clarity in the policy framework, which could severely hamper investments.

"Take the case of internet through cable television which has been envisaged in the new internet policy. While internet itself is regulated by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), cable television comes under the policy and regulatory purview of the information and broadcasting industry. What happens if one fine day the I&B ministry turns around and says that you cannot offer internet through the cable or comes up with some other pre-condition?," said KV Seshasayee, group vice-president in-charge of telecom for the Hindujas.

"Similarly, satellites come under the purviewof the Department of Space. Tomorrow if satellites are used to provide internet services then this department would also come into play. Convergence of all these sectors will not be possible till the regulatory authorities manning these sectors do not in some form or the other converge through a coordinated approach to the sector," he added.

The Hinduja group has outlined close to Rs 1,000 crore investment in the convergence industry. It is a big player in the cable television business and has already lined up plans to provide internet to its 3 million-and-odd cable TV subscribers. This would easily propel it to be the largest internet service provider.

Doubts, like the ones mentioned above are, however, holding back investments for the telecom sector, which is battling utter confusion on the new telecom policy issue front, with different government departments sending different signals to the industry.

In fact, the latest buzzword these days is convergence with every second top government functionarymaking no bones about the relevance and potential of such an industry.

A few large telecom players including basic service provider, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) have already outlined their desire to be big players in the convergence industry.

"We have posed the question of a converged regulatory structure for the convergence sector but have not received any satisfactory reply from the government as yet," said Seshasayee.

The need to have a new comprehensive Act on issues related to broadcasting, cable TV and the internet, has been outlined in the discussion paper for the new telecom policy. The discussion paper has dealt with the issue of need for convergence of technology in detail and has clearly made a case for this.