Hopeful of new telecom policy in 2018: Secretary
The communications ministry will set up working groups to deliberate on the new telecom policy (NTP) and hopes it will become a reality in 2018, Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said on Wednesday.
The policy in the offing, will focus on areas such as Internet for all, next-generation technologies (like 5G and Internet of Things), skills development, and security, among others. "We are commencing the work (on NTP)...and we will be setting-up the working groups and committees for this," Sundararajan said on the sidelines of an event on 'ICT: Engendering New Governance Structure'. Asked if the telecom department hopes to bring the new policy in the sector sometime in 2018, she replied in affirmative saying, "yes, we are indeed hopeful". Speaking at a seminar, Telcom Minister Minister Manoj Sinha said the upcoming policy will be application driven as compared to connectivity driven at present.
The policy has to focus on the end users and should look at the newer opportunities for expanding the availability of telecom services, the minister added. He further pointed out that the advent of high-speed data services and enhanced user expectation of getting real time on-demand bandwidth to run live applications has set the tone for new policy. Sundararajan said that the ministry will initiate the "widest possible public consultation" involving the industry, and that a series of regional workshops have also been planned to get inputs from local stakeholders on the new policy.
The department will work "intensively" on the policy over the next 3-4 months, she pointed out. On whether Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will be consulted on the policy, she said, "we will be in touch with TRAI for their policy inputs also". The policy will focus on areas like Internet for all as well as new-age technologies like 5G and Internet of Things or IoT. "Technologies like 5G and IoT will form the basis of the new Digital India. Other areas of focus will be skills development, getting more investments into telecom since we need to continuously upgrade our networks, and the aspect of security," she said.