Telecom Commission to take up final draft of telecom policy for nod

Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body in the telecom ministry, will take up the final draft of the next telecom policy and net neutrality for approval in the upcoming meeting at the end of the month, among other proposals, reported Economic Times.

Senior officials said to ET that the government would not consider the means of allocation of spectrum in the E&V bands in this meeting. They added, however, that the new policy, for which more than 1000 public and stakeholder comments have come in, would be considered for final approval before being taken to the Cabinet. 

“We’re expecting to hold the meeting in the last week of this month,” said a senior official. “New telecom policy, net neutrality may be taken up for approval, not taking up the E&V bands’ allocation,” the official added. 

The DoT issued the draft of the new telecom policy – National Communications Digital Policy – last month with the aim to attract $100 billion (about Rs 6.5 lakh crore) investments in the digital communications sector by 2022 with the help of more reforms in the sector. 

The policy was open till May-end for views of stakeholders and the public, and officials said, more than 1000 comments had come in, which were being reviewed by the department, after which it will be taken to the Telecom Commission for approval. 

Part of the deliberations in the upcoming meeting is also likely to be on the hotly debated topic of net neutrality, recommendations for which were made by the regulator. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has backed principles of a free and open internet and prohibited discriminatory treatment of content and practices such as blocking, degrading, slowing down or granting preferential speeds or treatment to any content. 

Trai had, however, allowed fast lanes for specialised services that DoT must define, and permitted telcos to use traffic management practices to maintain the quality of service. It also kept ‘content delivery networks’ out of the ambit of net neutrality.