New telecom policy by December-end

The government has taken up the job of framing a new telecom policy and a draft one should be ready by the end of December. This was announced by Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan on Friday. 
 
“Working groups to draft the policy are being set up as we speak,” she said. Earlier, in the previous week, the Department of Telecom (DoT) had commenced the consultation process by meeting operators, infrastructure providers, industry associations and standards bodies. Areas such as internet for all, next-generation technologies like 5G and Internet of Things, skill development and security will be on the radar of the National Telecom Policy. 
 
The new policy formulation comes at a time when the sector is facing financial crisis as both large and small operators have come under severe pressure post the entry of aggressive newcomer Reliance Jio and the subsequent free data and voice offerings. Sundararajan further added that the department will soon write to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) seeking inputs for the new telecom policy.