Newly appointed Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan has said that the government has already taken up the job of framing the new national telecom policy and would bring out the draft by the end of December. She also said that the Department of Telecom (DoT) is in the process of setting up working groups in order to look into different aspects of the policy.
Last week, DoT had commenced the consultation process by meeting operators, infrastructure providers, industry associations and standards bodies. The department is in the middle of formulating a new telecom policy that will broadly focus on areas such as Internet for all, next-generation technologies (like 5G and Internet of Things), skill development and security, among others. In addition, DoT is planning to go for a wide consultation and outreach before finalising the new policy and expects to have it in place by March 2018.
The new policy formulation comes at a time when the sector is facing financial crisis as both large and small operators have come under severe pressure post the entry of aggressive newcomer Reliance Jio and the subsequent free data and voice offerings. The department will soon write to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) seeking inputs for the new telecom policy.