The Department of Telecom (DoT) has started working on the new National Telecom Policy (NTP), for which it has created working groups to deal with various aspects, and a draft policy will be ready by the year-end. “We have got down to the job of framing the new NTP and the draft policy should be ready by the end of December. Working groups to draft the policy are being set up as we speak,” telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan told reporters.
Last week, the DoT initiated the policy framing exercise by holding a meeting with the telecom operators, infrastructure providers, industry associations and standards bodies. The new policy will focus on how internet can reach all across the country, next-generation technologies such as 5G and IoT, skill development and security, among others.
The ministry will also seek the views of the public before finalising the new policy, which it expects to come out by March 2018. Sundararajan said that DoT will soon approach the regulator Trai to seek its views on the new policy. Currently, the National Telecom Policy 2012 is in force, which allowed delinking of spectrum from licence, sharing and trading of spectrum, increase in broadband speed, blacklisting of stolen mobile phones, among others.