Dear Comrades,
PIB, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology 10-October, 2011 16:54 IST
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Draft
National Telecom Policy- 2011 Released by Shri Sibal
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Affordable, Reliable and Secure
Telecommunication and Broadband Services Across the Country Envisioned
Increase in Rural
Teledensity from 35 to 100 by 2020 Proposed
Broadband on
Demand and 600 Million Connections by 2020
Efforts Towards
‘Right to Broadband’
One Nation - One
License and One Nation - Free Roaming
Additional 300
MHz Spectrum by 2017 and Another 200 MHz by 2020 to be made Available
Seamless Voice,
Data, Multimedia and Broadcasting Services on Converged Networks
Eighty Percent
Telecom Sector Demand through Domestic Manufacturing with a Value Addition of
Sixty Five Percent by 2020
Shri Kapil Sibal, the Union Minister of
Communications and Information and Human Resource Development has said that
the Telecommunication has emerged as a key driver of economic and social
development and in an increasingly knowledge intensive global scenario India
needs to play a leadership role. National Telecom Policy-2011 is designed to
ensure that India plays this role effectively and transforms the
socio-economic scenario through accelerated equitable and inclusive economic
growth by laying special emphasis on providing affordable and quality
telecommunication services in rural and remote areas. Shri sibal said this
today while unveiling the draft National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2011.
The
Minister said that thrust of this policy is to underscore the imperative that
sustained adoption of technology would offer viable options in overcoming
developmental challenges in education, health, employment generation,
financial inclusion and much else. NTP-2011 is an initiative to create a
conducive policy framework to address these issues and to touch lives of all
citizens and transform India. By formulating a clear policy regime, NTP-2011
endeavors to create an investor friendly environment for attracting
additional investments in the sector apart from generating manifold
employment opportunities in various segments of the sector. In achieving the
goal of National Telecom Policy 2011 revenue generation will play a secondary
role.
Shri Sibal highlighted that
NTP-2011 has the vision Broadband on
Demand and envisages leveraging telecom infrastructure to enable all
citizens and businesses, both in rural and urban landscape, to participate in
the Internet and web economy thereby ensuring equitable and inclusive
development across the nation.
While underlining the salient
points of the draft Policy Shri Sibal said that It is now imperative to move
towards convergence between telecom, broadcast and IT services, networks,
platforms, technologies and overcome the existing segregation of licensing,
registration and regulatory mechanisms in these areas to enhance
affordability, increase access, delivery of multiple services and reduce
cost.
The emerging technology trends in
electronics hardware, telecom connectivity and IT will make it possible for
millions of citizens to access services electronically in self-service mode
using mobile phones and the Internet or through assisted service points such
as Common Service Centres etc.
A concerted effort to boost
manufacturing activity is now exigent as robust economic growth in the country
is leading to an extraordinarily high demand for electronic products in
general and telecom products in particular. NTP-2011 provides a roadmap for
India to become a leader in cutting edge, state of the art technologies
through R&D and creation and incorporation of Indian IPRs in global
standards.
NTP-2011 recognises that the
rapid growth in the telecom sector requires to be supported by an enhanced
pace of human capital formation and capacity building. It becomes imperative
to put in place an integrated skill development strategy for the converged
ICT sector as a whole so that there is continuous up-gradation of skills in
tune with the technological developments.
The importance of PSUs in
meeting the strategic and security needs of the country can also not be
understated. This policy recognises that BSNL, MTNL and other PSUs will
continue to play such important role.
The National Telecom Policy-2011
envisions providing the people of India, secure, reliable, affordable and
high quality converged telecommunication services anytime, anywhere. Some of
the important objectives of the policy include:
Increase in rural teledensity
from the current level of around 35 to 60 by the year 2017 and 100 by the
year 2020.
Provide affordable and reliable broadband on demand by the year 2015 and to
achieve 175 million broadband connections by the year 2017 and 600 million by
the year 2020 at minimum 2 Mbps download speed and making available higher
speeds of atleast 100 Mbps on demand.
Provide high speed and high quality broadband access
to all village panchayats through optical fibre by the year 2014 and progressively to all villages and habitations.
Promote indigenous R&D,
innovation and manufacturing that serve domestic and foreign markets.
Promote the domestic production of
telecommunication equipment to meet 80%
Indian telecom sector demand through domestic manufacturing with a value
addition of 65% by the year 2020.
Provide preferential market access
for domestically manufactured telecommunication products including mobile
devices, SIM cards with enhanced features etc. with special emphasis on Indian products for which IPRs reside in India to address strategic
and security concerns of the Government, consistent with international commitments.
Strive to create One Nation - One License across
services and service areas.
Achieve One Nation - Full Mobile Number Portability and work towards One Nation - Free Roaming.
To reposition the mobile phone from a mere communication device to an instrument of empowerment that
combines communication with proof of identity, fully secure financial and
other transaction capability, multi-lingual services and a whole range of
other capabilities that ride on them and transcend the literacy barrier.
Deliver seamless ICT, multimedia and
broadcasting services on converged
networks for enhanced service delivery to provide superior experience to
customers.
Optimize transmission of services to
consumers irrespective of their devices or locations by Fixed-Mobile Convergence thus making available valuable spectrum
for other wireless services.
Facilitate consolidation in the
converged telecom service sector while ensuring sufficient competition.
Mandate an ecosystem to ensure
setting up of a common platform for
interconnection of various networks for providing non-exclusive and
non-discriminatory access.
Promote an ecosystem for
participants in VAS industry value chain to make India a global hub for Value
Added Services (VAS).
Ensure adequate availability of
spectrum and its allocation in a transparent manner through market related
processes. Make available additional
300 MHz spectrum for IMT services by the year 2017 and another 200 MHz by
2020.
Strengthen the framework to address
the environmental and health related concerns pertaining to the telecom sector.
Encourage adoption of green policy
in telecom and incentivize use of renewable resources for sustainability.
Protect consumer interest by
promoting informed consent, transparency and accountability in quality of
service, tariff, usage etc.
Encourage recognition and creation
of synergistic alliance of public sector and other organisations of
Department of Telecommunications (DoT) through appropriate policy
interventions.
Achieve substantial transition to new Internet Protocol (IPv 6) in the
country in a phased and time bound manner by 2020 and encourage an
ecosystem for provision of a significantly large bouquet of services on IP
platform.
Put in place a web based, real time
e-governance solution to support online submission of applications for all
services of DoT and issuance of licences and clearances from DoT.
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PIB, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology 10-October, 2011 16:54 IST