Cabinet to decide on National Telecom Policy, says Sibal

May 30, 2012 | Business | Written by

New Delhi, May 30: Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday said that the cabinet would take a final call on the National Telecom Policy (NTP), which aims to change its decade-old telecom rules and bring about reforms.

The National Telecom Policy proposes delinking of spectrum as well as enhancing broadband availability and speed.

Sibal said that the cabinet is yet to take a decision on the NTP.

“As far as NTP (National Telecom Policy) is concerned, I think the policy will be decided very soon in the cabinet and when it is decided we will tell you about it,” he said.

An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) would meet on June 5 to determine the price for the auction of the telecom spectrum.

Sibal further said that as part of the new policy, the government will delink the allocation of telecom licenses from mobile spectrum that now comes free with the licenses. The government also plans to ask companies to pay for spectrum based on a market-driven mechanism.

He added that EGoM would fix the base price for the auction of the 2G spectrum as necessitated by the cancellation of 122 licenses by the Supreme Court. (ANI)