Govt clears National Telecom Policy 2012

Govt clears National Telecom Policy 2012

The National Telecom Policy – 2012 (NTP-12) was cleared by the government on, paving the way for free roaming, country-wide mobile number portability (MNP), liberalised spectrum, pan-India operator licences, technology-agnostic spectrum and a host of other policy announcements that are expected to take the Indian telecom sector to the next level of revolution.

The new policy is set to take India from voice to data with emphasis on broadband penetration and making spectrum technology-agnostic, meaning the operators have been allowed to provide any service on technology and on any device.

It has also increased the broadband speed to minimum of 2 megabit per second. However, it will be a while before all measures are enforced as the government has yet to work out the modalities of implementing it.

The government has also delinked licences from spectrum, which earlier came bundled. Though, most industry players and experts feel there are several grey areas that are needed to be clarified and that the objectives set by the government would be realised only on effective implementation.