New Telecom Policy Likely by June: Economic Survey


New Telecom Policy Likely by June: Economic Survey
New Delhi: The new telecom policy, which is expected to do away with roaming charges for subscribers will be announced by June, the Economic Survey said Thursday. "The government is in the process of finalizing the new National Telecom Policy (NTP). Draft of the policy was circulated in 2011 for consultation with various stake holders. Views from these stake holders have been received and the same are under consideration," the survey said. "NTP is likely to be in place by June 2012," it added. The draft policy also proposes to implement one nation full mobile number portability (MNP) along with providing the telecom industry the status of an infrastructure sector, which will help ease credit flow to companies for funding rollout plans or expansion activities. The draft has been approved by the telecom commission and the Department of Telecom (DoT) is in the process of seeking cabinet approval. According to DoT secretary R. Chandrashekhar, the draft policy will be sent to the cabinet by March and the department expects to get the cabinet approval by April end. According to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India has 903 million mobile connections as on Jan 31.
Source: IANS