Reduce number of service areas, industry tells DoT

The department of telecommunications (DoT) has received a number of suggestions from the telecom industry and key stakeholders, which will be considered while formulating the government's strategy for next five years, according to a report.

The proposals include the DoT being asked to identify three to four 20 MHz slots for auctioning and deploying 4G airwaves this year, migration to a technology-neutral licence regime, delinking licences from resources such as spectrum and numbering, a priority-based licence renewal mechanism, reducing telecom service areas from the present 22, and pruning the hefty interconnection costs, according to report  in The Economic Times.

 The DoT had invited suggestions from interested parties following a cabinet secretariat directive in the run-up to formulating its strategic plan.

The industry has urged the DoT to thrash out a road map for vacation of additional airwaves to beef up telecom connectivity in the villages, enable telecom companies to relinquish excess idle GSM and microwave spectrum, and encourage mergers and acquisitions along with pooling of spectrum, subject to a cap on percentage basis of the total assigned airwaves in a particular circle to maximise economies of scale.

Other suggestions include formulating plans for rapid utilisation of universal service obligations funds for pan-India broadband penetration and unveiling uniform norms for setting up of telecom towers.

The DoT's policy wing, in an internal note which the paper says it has viewed, said, "Eight core groups have been constituted to identify thrust areas like telecom and broadband policy, spectrum management, rural communications, security and networking policy, convergence strategy for telecommunications, IT and broadcasting to revival of central PSUs within the DoT's ambit."

The paper quoted an unnamed official as saying, "The DoT has so far received some 22 recommendations from diverse telecom interests. It remains to be seen how many of these actually see the light of day in the upcoming national telecom policy 2011 which will be drafted after an elaboration consultation process involving all stakeholders."

Earlier this month, telecom minister Kapil Sibal had said the DoT would hold detailed consultations with key stakeholders to evolve a clear and transparent NTP 2011.