Telecom regulator Trai on Wednesday invited suggestions from stakeholders for the proposed National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2018.
Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is already in the process of preparing the new policy which is expected to be finalised by March this year.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will give its inputs on the new policy to the DoT.
In its consultation paper on ‘Inputs for Formulation of National Telecom Policy – 2018’, Trai said its inputs have been prepared based on preliminary discussions with multiple stakeholders including telecom operators, equipment manufacturers, industry bodies and cloud service providers “in line with the technological advancements in the sector and customer aspirations for digital services”.
In August last year, DoT had asked for inputs from Trai for the formulation of the new policy.
The NTP ‘objectives’ outlined in Trai consultation paper include achieving 900 million broadband connections at a minimum download speed of 2 Mbps, developing 10 million public wi-fi hotspots, attaining average speed of 20 Mbps for wireless internet connectivity and placing India among top-50 nations in global rankings of network readiness, communications systems and services.
Other objectives include enabling access for connecting to 10 billion Internet of Things and Machine-to-Machine sensors and devices and attracting $100 billion investment in the communications sector.
This can be achieved through strategies like review of licence fee and spectrum charges and working towards One Nation, One Licence for services and making available finance for communication infrastructure projects on par with that of connectivity infrastructure sectors like roadways and railways, Trai said.
The policy could have twin goals – facilitating the development of communication infrastructure and services to achieve inclusive socio-economic growth and to propel India to become the front-runner in the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”.
“This policy would set the mission and objectives to be accomplished by the end of the calendar year 2022 when India will be celebrating its 75 years of Independence,” Trai paper said, asking stakeholders to give their comments on structure and contents of the proposed NTP inputs.
Other goals include an average speed of 20 Mbps for wireless and 50 Mbps for wireline internet connectivity, full rural teledensity, enabling access for wireline broadband services to 50% households in the country, enabling access for high-quality wireless broadband services at affordable prices to 90% population.
The deadline for the written comments is January 19, 2018.
REVOLUTION IN AIR
1)The deadline for the written comments is January 19, 2018
2)The NTP ‘objectives’ include achieving 900 million broadband connections at a minimum download speed of 2 Mbps, developing 10 million public wi-fi hotspots, attaining an average speed of 20 Mbps for wireless internet connectivity and placing India among top-
3)50 nations in global rankings of network readiness, communications systems and services
4)Other objectives include enabling access for connecting to 10 billion Internet of Things and Machine-to-Machine sensors and devices and attracting $100 billion investment in the communications sector