Trai seeks public views on new telecom policy
Telecom regulator Trai on Wednesday invited public views on inputs for the proposed National Telecom Policy (NTP), under formulation by the government.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will give its inputs on the matter to the Telecom Department, which hopes to finalise the new policy by March. Trai on Wednesday released a consultation paper on Inputs for Formulation of National Telecom Policy- 2018.
The regulator, in a statement, 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”.
The NTP ‘objectives’ outlined in the 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,
NEW DELHI:
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 $100billion investment in the communications sector.
The paper added that this can be achieved through strategies like review of license fee and spectrum charges, and working towards One Nation–One License for services, and making available finance for communication infrastructure projects on par with that of connectivity infrastructure sectors like roadways and railways.
The deadline for providing written comments on the paper is January 19.
Investors in the Uber ride-hailing service didn’t get all they wanted in selling at least part of their holdings to a group led by Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank. But don’t show them too much sympathy.
Even though they sold at roughly a 30% discount from what the shares were worth in 2016, those who invested early made nearly 100 times their initial stake, going from around 35 cents per share to just under $33, according to one investor who requested anonymity because the sales are private.
Uber was valued around $68.5 billion during a 2016 capital investment, but it dropped to somewhere above $48 billion in the SoftBank deal announced last week. The reasons for the discount are many—among them the seemingly endless string of scandals, lawsuits and fights that plagued Uber through almost all of 2017. Also, competition has gotten tougher from Lyft and Grab in the US, as well as
DETROIT: