Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal unveiled the draft New Telecom Policy 2011 Monday,floating several big ideas but providing few details or timelines for implementation. Revenue generation,Sibal said,would have a secondary role in the policy,and the government would rather strive to bridge the digital divide between urban and rural India. The policy has proposed an end to circle-specific licences,national roaming charges and the restriction of mobile number portability to within circles. The new system would allow for a single India telecom service licence,an end to national roaming charges,and nationwide number portability. The final policy will be announced in December,after taking into account feedback from stakeholders and incorporating recommendations by Trai. While consumers will applaud the move to do away with roaming charges,industry will suffer. Sibal also did not announce a system akin to one-nation,one-rate for telecom companies,which pays a revenue-share licence fee ranging from 6-10% depending on circles. The industry would,however,welcome Sibals intention to allow spectrum pooling,sharing and trading,and his announcement that 300 Mhz of spectrum would be provided by 2017 and another 200 Mhz by 2020. Directionally it is a very good draft for operators and operations,vendors,value added services,mobile phone users and everyone in the sector, said Prashant Singhal,telecom analyst at Ernst & Young. Sibal also announced a plan to de-link licences from spectrum,and make all spectrum available through a market mechanism,and to make broadband available on demand. He did not,however,give details or timelines.
