New telecom policy draft likely by year-end

NEW DELHI: The government is planning to bring out the draft of the new telecom policy by the year end, a top official of the telecom department said. The department of telecom (DoT) is also setting up working groups to aid in the creation of the new policy as the government aims to get views of all stakeholders, including the public, in the contours of the new policy.

"We're expecting the draft of the new telecom policy to be out by December. The working groups are being created as we speak," telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan said on Friday on the sidelines of an industry event.

DoT has already held its first round of discussions with operators, industry associations and research organisations on the broad contours and key areas under the new telecom policy, which the government wants to bring in by 2018. Discussions, held a week ago, were around policy and regulatory framework, spectrum framework, security requirements for telecom networks, ease of doing business, and even manufacturing and exports.

Ideas around cloud economic zones, aligning of the Centre and states to achieve telecom objectives, and devising network and regulations for IoT devices were mooted.