Communications minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia is expected to start consultations with telecom industry to draw a roadmap for the next level of growth. The idea is to get a feedback from the industry on the pain points so that they could be addressed, as well as initiatives which can be taken to take the sector can grow at a faster rate.

The first meeting with industry veterans, academicians, and R&D experts, who are part of the advisory panel formed for the purpose, has likely been scheduled for July 16.

Bharti Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal; Apple India MD regulation Virat Bhatia; Jio’s Ravi Gandhi; Ajai Chowdhry, co-founder of HCL; NG Subramanium, former COO of TCS; RK Bhatnagar, director general of VOICE, and RK Upadhyay of C-DOT, will be participating in the discussions.

DoT has formed six committees to improve the sector. The six panels involve original equipment makers (OEMs), satellite communication companies, telecom service providers (TSPs), internet service providers (ISPs), electronics, and academicians and R&D experts in the telecom sector.

“We are starting the dialogues with the industry for the betterment of the sector. The decisions will be taken if any based on the feedback,” an official said.

The committee members have been asked to share items for consideration, goals and targets before the meeting. DoT has received a few talk points and feedback from the industry to enable technology promotion, go to market strategies for developed products, R&D, focus on localisation, among others, from some of the industry stakeholders.

Industry executives said, the present issues on the universal services obligation fund (USOF) levy, licence fee reduction, zero custom duty, besides focus on increasing exports of telecom equipments, etc, will be taken up with the DoT.

Domestic telecom equipment players will likely raise the issue of level-playing field with major players with regard to government tenders and relaxation in eligibility criteria.

Earlier in December 2022, the then communications minister Ashwini Vaishnaw also formed multiple task forces – on high volume telecom chipset development, for telecom components manufacturing, efficient customs and logistics, telecom export promotion, and new telecom equipment opportunities.

Meanwhile, the government has started notifying rules for the Telecom Act for public discussions and also implemented a few sections of the Act from June 26.

On Thursday, the draft right of way (RoW) rules were notified for public consultations. The rules aim at smooth installation of telecom infrastructure across the country with easy permissions and minimum charges.

In the draft rules, the rates for installation of small cells have been specified at Rs 300 per annum for urban areas and Rs 150 per annum for rural areas per street furniture. There is a one-time charge of Rs 1,000 per km for installation of underground telecom network and Rs 10,000 per tower for mobile towers, as per the draft rules.