The Cabinet is likely to take up on Thursday the National Telecom
Policy, 2012, which envisages doing away with national roaming and also
allowing mobile number portability (MNP) across circles.
The policy, if approved, will replace the 13-year-old New Telecom Policy 1999 and will offer some clarity to players on important issues such as spectrum pricing and its sharing. NTP is essentially a framework document that sets out the roadmap for the country’s telecom sector. NTP 2012 will be the third installment, after similar documents issued in 1994 and 1999. Under NTP 2012, it has been proposed to de-link spectrum from licences, reduce number of different licences, give industry liberal mergers and acquisition norms and remove roaming charges burden from consumers. A draft of the policy was circulated in 2011 for consultation with various stakeholders.
While Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal had, earlier this year, announced that the NTP would be released by April, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has been finding it tough to give a final shape to the policy document in the wake of the Supreme Court’s February 2012 order that cancelled 122 licences issued in 2008. The NTP envisages doing away with national roaming, which would be a boon for the subscribers, besides allowing mobile number portability (MNP) across circles.
The policy, if approved, will replace the 13-year-old New Telecom Policy 1999 and will offer some clarity to players on important issues such as spectrum pricing and its sharing. NTP is essentially a framework document that sets out the roadmap for the country’s telecom sector. NTP 2012 will be the third installment, after similar documents issued in 1994 and 1999. Under NTP 2012, it has been proposed to de-link spectrum from licences, reduce number of different licences, give industry liberal mergers and acquisition norms and remove roaming charges burden from consumers. A draft of the policy was circulated in 2011 for consultation with various stakeholders.
While Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal had, earlier this year, announced that the NTP would be released by April, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has been finding it tough to give a final shape to the policy document in the wake of the Supreme Court’s February 2012 order that cancelled 122 licences issued in 2008. The NTP envisages doing away with national roaming, which would be a boon for the subscribers, besides allowing mobile number portability (MNP) across circles.
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