Telecom sector eyes $100b investments

The telecom sector should be able to address global requirements and attract investments of about $100 billion by 2022 under the new policy in works, as per suggestions made by sector regulator Trai on Friday.

The regulator recommended that under the new policy framework, the telecom sector should be able to generate 20 lakh jobs, achieve 900 million broadband subscriptions with download speed of 2 Mbps and connect all gram panchayats with at least 1 gigabit per second with wireless broadband by 2022. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) reiterated its long pending demand of putting in place an ombudsman based consumer grievance redressal mechanism "by end of 2018". The regulator, in March 2017, had recommended DoT to set up ombudsman in the sector, which should have the power to levy penalties on the telecom service providers. The Department of Telecom had sought views of Trai on National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2018 on August 21, 2017.

The regulator listed out seven broad missions and 18 objectives that should be achieved under the NTP 2018. Trai said the NTP 2018 should be able to enable access at affordable prices for wireless broadband services, including through satellite to 90 per cent population and there should be 65% active unique mobile subscribers by 2022. The teledensity in the country stands at around 91%.