National Telecom Policy (NTP) - 2012 !!

[Chief]

The Union Cabinet today approved the National Telecom Policy -2012 (NTP - 2012).



The Cabinet also approved introduction of Unified Licence and authorised the Department of Telecommunications to finalise the new Unified Licensing regime with the approval of Minister of Communications & IT. The salient features of the National Telecom Policy-2012 are as follows:

The policy envisions providing secure, reliable, affordable and high quality converged telecommunication services anytime, anywhere for an accelerated inclusive socio-economic development. The main thrust of the Policy is on the multiplier effect and transformational impact of such services on the overall economy. The thrust areas of NTP - 2012 are:

• Increase rural teledensity from the current level of around 39 to 70 by the year 2017 and 100 by the year 2020

• Repositioning of Mobile phone- as an instrument of empowerment

• Broadband –“'Broadband For All” at a minimum download speed of 2 Mbps

• Domestic Manufacturing- Making India a global hub

• Convergence of Network, Services and Devices

• Liberalisation of Spectrum- any Service in any Technology

• Simplification of Licensing regime- Unified Licensing, delinking of Spectrum from License, Online real time submission and processing

• Consumer Focus - Achieve One Nation - Full Mobile Number Portability and work towards One Nation - Free Roaming

• Resale of Services

• Voice over Internet Protocol

• Cloud Computing, Next Generation Network including IPV6

The policy seeks to provide a predictable and stable policy regime for a period of about ten years. Policy will be operationalised by bringing out detailed guidelines, as may be considered appropriate, from time to time. Implementation will enable smooth implementation of the policies for providing an efficient telecommunication infrastructure taking into account the primary objective of maximizing public good by empowering the people of India. The policy will further enable taking suitable facilitatory measures to encourage existing service providers to rapidly migrate to the new regime in a uniformly liberalised environment with a level playing field.

 

[Chief]

New telecom policy allows mobile number portability


The Cabinet on Thursday approved the new National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012, which aims to abolish roaming charges across the country and facilitate nationwide mobile number portability (MNP) for mobile phone users.

Under the new policy, the government plans to remove roaming fees and allow users to retain their numbers even if they move from one circle or zone to another.

"By allowing mobile subscribers to use the same number across the country without having to pay extra charges, the target is one-nation-one-number with free roaming," Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.

However, consumers will have to wait for some time before roaming charges are abolished and the one-number-onenation concept is implemented as the department of telecom (DoT) will first have to work out the modalities. Telecom

Telecom companies will lose almost 10 per cent of their total revenue once roaming is free.

DoT will now start the process of implementing nationwide MNP allowing users to retain their existing number at the time of changing their service providers across any state.

A senior telecom ministry official said that free roaming will depend on market forces. "But when it has to be implemented, it will depend on market conditions and various considerations. We will implement it then," he said.

However, sources pointed out that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government will try to encash on making roaming free across the country and national MNP during parliamentary elections, scheduled for May 2014. "It will help the Congress- led UPA government garner political mileage," said the official.

Aimed to boost transparency and revive growth in the sector, the new policy will separate telecoms permits and radio airwaves against the current practice of bundling them and charge a market-derived prices for lucrative airwaves.

India will also relax rules for Internet telephony, a move which will be positive for companies such as Reliance Industries that own nationwide fourth- generation (4G) mobile broadband spectrum. Internet telephony is currently allowed but in a restricted manner. This is expected to benefit companies like Mukesh Ambanirun Infotel which hold 4G-BWA licences.

With NTP 2012, the Centre will also seek to refarm or switch airwave bands held by government agencies and private telecoms operators from time to time to make way for new technologies, Sibal said.

Private telecoms carriers have been opposing the airwave switch plan. The policy also seeks to ease 'mergers and acquisition' rules in the sector to facilitate consolidation in the crowded market. The policy will streamline licensing regulations by allowing operators to obtain a single nationwide licence and separate the allocation of licences from awarding of bandwidth.

"The policy seeks to provide a predictable and stable policy regime," Sibal added.


New telecom policy allows mobile number portability : India, News - India Today

 

[Chief]

India’s New Telecom Policy 2012: What’s Changed? Additions & Omissions



Earlier this month, the Union Cabinet had approved the National Telecom Policy (NTP 2012) with a few changes and additions to the original draft of the New Telecom Policy, introduced by Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in October 2011. This policy will replace the existing telecom policy formulated in 1999 and define the general direction that telecom policy in the country is expected to take. There are differences between the initial and final policies:

Change in Objectives: The draft NTP Policy had suggested direct revenue generation as its secondary objective, however the government seems to have shot down this objective, replacing it with ‘availability of affordable and effective communications for the citizens’ which the finance minister said will be the goal of National Telecom Policy – 2012 and the core of the policy’s vision.

Policy Additions

The government has added a number of guidelines to the the draft telecom policy. These include:

- Provide appropriate incentives for rolling out reliable and affordable broadband access to rural and remote areas: DoT had earlier proposed to lay special emphasis on providing reliable and affordable broadband access to rural and remote areas by a combination of optical fibre, wireless, VSAT and other technologies,which were to be funded from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) while the access to Optical Fibre Network was proposed to be open, non-discriminatory and technology neutral. DoT had also encouraged Fibre To The Home (FTTH) with enabling guidelines and policies and had suggested the creation of an institutional framework to co-ordinate with different government departments for laying of telecom cables including Optical Fibre Cable networks.

- Launch secure transactional services including online authentication of identity and financial services by leveraging mobile devices and SIM cards with enhanced features.

- To promote R&D, design, development and manufacturing in the domestic telecom equipment manufacturing, provide appropriate fiscal incentives to telecom equipment manufacturing through a Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS) and to Indian product manufacturers for domestic deployment and exports. The policy also intends to implement a stable tax regime for telecom equipment manufacturing.

- Approving MVNOs (Mobile virtual network operators): The policy intends to facilitate resale at the service level in both wholesale and retail, by introducing virtual operators while ensuring due compliance with security and other license related obligations.

- The government intends to establish and strengthen Institute of Advanced Radio Spectrum Engineering and Management Studies (IARSEMS) to undertake policy research in radio spectrum engineering, management/radio monitoring and related aspects as a government agency.

- It also intends to strengthen and develop National Telecom Institute for Policy Research, Innovation and Training (NTIPRIT) to enable research in India centric technologies and policies in telecom domain, capacity building and set up a comprehensive repository in NTIPRIT for distributing telecom related information, standards, benchmarks, resources, and program curriculum.

- The government will also establish a National Mobile Property Registry to address security, theft and other issues likes reprogramming of mobile handsets and create an appropriate regulatory framework to provide a reliable means of public communication by Telecom Service Providers during disasters while strengthening the regulator to ensure telcos comply with the prescribed performance standards and Quality of Service (QoS) parameters.

- It seeks to appropriately consider restructuring of the Public Sector Undertakings, under the Department of Telecommunications, with respect to management, manpower and equity and recognize strategic importance of Telecom PSUs in nurturing/enhancing Government’s intervention capabilities in matters of national security or international importance, including execution of bilateral projects funded by Government of India.

- To recognise and enhance the opportunities available through/within Telecom PSUs for deployment of indigenously developed Telecom products, with Indian IPR, to provide vital support for domestic manufacturing of Indian Telecom products in the long run.

- To formulate appropriate policies in the area of enterprise and data services to fuel further growth of India’s ICTE sector and attract investments.

- The policy also intends to take requisite measures to strengthen various DoT units when necessary, to achieve the objectives of this policy as well as operationalize the policy by bringing out detailed guidelines, when appropriate. It also intends to take suitable facilitatory measures to encourage existing service providers migrate to the new regime in a level playing field.

Policy Omissions

While the government has retained majority of the proposals made by DoT in the draft New Telecom Policy, there are a few omissions in the final NTP 2012 policy. These include:

- To make best use of spectrum in line with technological advancement and to establish an appropriate regulatory framework for progressive liberalisation of spectrum utilisation to make spectrum utilisation voice/data/video neutral.

- The draft telecom policy had proposed to strengthen the Wireless Planning & Coordination (WPC) wing and Wireless Monitoring Organisation (WMO) and promote designing and deployment of low power active radio devices and reliable and resilient communication networks.

- The policy draft had also proposed a separate Spectrum Act which inter-alia deals with all issues connected with wireless (spectrum) licences and their terms and conditions including re- farming/ withdrawal of allotted spectrum, spectrum pricing, cancellation or revocation of spectrum licence, exemptions on use of spectrum, spectrum sharing, and spectrum trading.


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[Xen]

PM and Montek Singh Ahluwalia rubbish Kapil Sibal's telecom proposal

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has trashed Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal's proposal to unilaterally amend the government's licensing agreement with existing telecom companies and force them to pay auction-determined prices for the spectrum they currently hold.

The PM put his stamp of approval on the finance ministry views in response to a draft note circulated to various ministries in preparation for a Cabinet meeting scheduled for Tuesday. Sibal seems to be buffeted between the PM and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who has similarly raised Cain over amending the licensing agreement.

According to sources, Sibal's proposal would have gone against the interests of dual technology companies Tata Teleservices and RCom and benefited GSM operators Bharti Airtel and Vodafone. The licenses of dual technology companies are valid till 2021 and beyond, while those of the GSM players are due for renewal a good seven years earlier in 2014-15. The dual technology companies would, therefore, end up losing a lot more than the GSM players if the department of telecommunications (DoT) proposal is pushed through.

The PM has, as Finance Minister, made it clear that the sanctity of contracts need to be weighed carefully, thus implying that this would not be the case if the DoT proposal of unilaterally amending the licence was to be implemented.

The finance ministry has pointed out that the government has allotted the start-up spectrum and contracted spectrum to the existing players and by doing so has acquired certain contractual obligations for the duration of the licence.

The PM has come out in favour of a careful assessment of the impact on investor sentiment that frequent changes in contract terms may have. The impact on foreign investors is also considered important and has come up for special mention.

The Sibal-headed DoT, on the other hand, appears to be banking on the "level playing field" argument for old and new players in its proposal to charge auction- determined prices.

The finance ministry's logic is in sync with the views of the Planning Commission, which has gone into the issue in considerable detail.

The Commission has also stated that the terms of the unified access (UAS) licence give the government the power to change the terms at any time.

"This is indeed a wide ranging power, but is usually meant to be used in an extreme case. If it is interpreted to mean that any change can be used at any time, it becomes to open ended, leading to uncertainty. It is doubtful that banks or other investors will finance telecom investments if the terms of licences are subject to such open ended certainty," it concludes.

According to the Planning Commission, "the only rationale for the change seems to be that there should be a level playing field between new and incumbent operators.

It has observed that "all industries see new entrants entering at different times. New entrants always incur different costs and very often face different tax environments from what the incumbents faced. For example, if interest rates have risen at a time when new incumbents are investing, they have a disadvantage over existing incumbents but interest rates are rationalised retrospectively on all outstanding loans of existing incumbents.

New entrants in telecom are entering a field where the advantage of existing incumbents are known and it will be reflected in the competitive bid for the spectrum," the Planning Commission further argued.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Monday evening recused himself from heading the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on telecom, three days after he replaced Pranab Mukherjee in the job.

Pawar, who was scheduled to chair the first meeting of the new EGoM, postponed the meeting and then wrote to the Prime Minister recalling how attempts were made in the past to drag him in the 2G controversy and that it would be appropriate for him to recuse himself.

IndiaToday​