To shape the future Indian telecom sector, Union Cabinet today has approved the National Telecom Policy -2012 (NTP – 2012), making major changes to current Telecom Policies. Cabinet also approved introduction of Unified Licence and authorized the Department of Telecommunications to finalize the new Unified Licensing regime with the approval of Minister of Communications and IT. With the new National Telecom Policy, users can now enjoy free roaming, One Nation full Mobile Number Portability, minimum Broadband speed of 2Mbps and lots more.
With one nation one license policy will effectively remove the need of roaming charges, thus there will be no difference between STD and local calls. With One Nation – Full Mobile Number Portability users can keep their Phone Numbers even after they switch service providers from anywhere in the country.
The National Telecom Policy 2012 provides 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 main highlights of National Telecom Policy 2012 are:
- Consumer Focus – Achieve One Nation – Full Mobile Number Portability and work towards One Nation – Free Roaming
- Broadband –“’Broadband For All” at a minimum download speed of 2 Mbps
- Domestic Manufacturing- Making India a global hub
- 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
- 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
- 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. 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.