Sibal unveils National Telecom Policy 2011; vows to achieve 100% rural tele-density by 2020

11 Oct 2011 Evaluate

With a view to make the country's telecommunications sector transparent and give a level playing field to all service providers, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has come up with its new draft of the National Telecom Policy 2011. Kapil Sibal, the Union Minister of Communications released the new telecom policy draft, which would revamp the sector and strive to achieve cent percent rural tele-density by 2020.

National Telecom Policy-2011 is designed to ensure that India plays this role effectively and transforms the socio-economic scenario through accelerated equitable and inclusive economic growth by laying special emphasis on providing affordable and quality telecommunication services in rural and remote areas. The draft advocates for one nation-one licence policy across the country, which implies removal of roaming charges and also achieve full mobile number portability.

Kapil Sibal opined that under the new policy, cellular spectrum will be priced on a market basis and will be separated from the allocation of licenses and it along with its uses would be subject to audit. The minister also was of the opinion that broadband should penetrate into homes of the masses. NTP-2011 has the vision “Broadband on Demand” and envisages leveraging telecom infrastructure to enable all citizens and businesses, both in rural and urban landscape, to participate in the Internet and web economy thereby ensuring equitable and inclusive development across the nation. In order to achieve this target, the ministry is expected to auction 500 Mhz of additional spectrum by 2020 - with 300 Mhz of that coming up over the next five years.

A concerted effort to boost manufacturing activity is now exigent as robust economic growth in the country is leading to an extraordinarily high demand for electronic products in general and telecom products in particular. NTP-2011 provides a roadmap for India to become a leader in cutting edge, state of the art technologies through R&D and creation and incorporation of Indian IPRs in global standards.

The National Telecom Policy-2011 envisions providing the people of India, secure, reliable, affordable and high quality converged telecommunication services anytime, anywhere. 

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