TRAI consultation paper on Telecom Policy out

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), through its letter dated August 21, 2017 requested the TRAI to suggest its policy inputs for formulation of National Telecom Policy - 2018. The DoT, on its website, has stated that the new telecom policy will be governed by the key guiding principle of alignment with the national vision. Its major themes will be regulatory and licensing frameworks impacting the telecom sector, connectivity-for-all, quality of services, ease of doing business, and absorption of new technologies including 5G and Internet of Things (IoT).

The policy has, “common Strategies to leapfrog India amongst top-50 nations in international rankings in terms of network readiness, communications systems and services, to attract an investment of USD 100 billion in telecommunication sector, and to attain average speed of 20 Mbps for wireless and 50 Mbps for wireline internet connectivity.” The government through the new telecom policy seeks to spur the socioeconomic development up to the bottom of the pyramid by ensuring voice, video and data connectivity for all, provide reliable and secured connectivity with assured quality of service.

Stakeholders are requested to furnish their written comments by January 19, 2018. The Indian telecom sector is the second largest in the world by number of telephone subscribers with 1.2 billion subscribers as on October 31, 2017. India also has the world’s second-largest internet subscriber base with 340 mn internet subscribers as on October 31, 2017. It has one of the lowest tariffs for telecommunication services in the world.