New telecom policy draft to be ready by FY'18: Manoj Sinha

The Department of Telecom (DoT) is in process of formulating a new telecom policy and the draft of the same should be ready by end of ongoing fiscal, Parliament was informed today.

"The DoT envisages to formulate a new National Telecom Policy in view of rapid technological advancement in the sector. The draft policy is likely to be ready by end of this financial year," Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

The new telecom policy may include areas of technology innovation, security and protecting the interests of consumers, he added.

At present, National Telecom Policy 2012 is in force which has paved way for delinking of spectrum from licence, sharing and trading of spectrum, increase in broadband speed, blacklisting of stolen mobile phones, among others.

However, the ministry is yet to meet certain targets like 2 megabits per second (Mbps) broadband speed for consumers and more importantly, empowering consumers by bringing their disputes with service providers under the jurisdiction of consumer forums.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)