NTP 2011: An Open Letter to the Telecom Minister

MOBILE SITE

Active Your Free Membership Now | REGISTER

Networking the Telecom Industry

BharatBlog

More BharatBlog

Most Recent Comment

October 12, 2011
Gagandeep Sodhi
Comments(1)

Post a Comment

Rate this item
(0 votes) Please Login to rateYou have already rated this

Dear Mr Sibal,

As an observer of telecom policy, I am delighted by the release of the Draft National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2011, introduced by you earlier this week.

The industry was abuzz with anticipation for the draft -- in fact, many industry players had put their plans on hold as they waited to see how the policy would impact the sector and their businesses. The policy was seen as a panacea document that would provide direction to the beleaguered and scam-ridden industry. (See NTP 2011: Strong Action Plan Required.)

The draft, especially the focus on domestic manufacturing, is clearly a step in the right direction and is likely to benefit the Indian manufacturing sector. The stress on new technologies such as cloud computing and IPv6 is also laudable.

However, the policy also seems lacking in some critical details. Here are some questions that still need to be answered:

Where are the exit guidelines? The lack of information about how service providers could exit the sector through some sort of merger or acquisition agreement was a big let down for the industry, which was looking forward to the nitty gritty as to how this should work. Maybe you will formulate a policy later when the 2G scam is a thing of the past, but, for now, the uncertainty continues.

How will spectrum be shared? The most prominent positive initiative of the policy is, of course, the green light for spectrum pooling and sharing -- I can almost hear a collective sigh of relief from the operators. What is not clear, however, is how this will be facilitated or implemented. Shouldn't the Government have laid out clear rules and regulations as how this will work? (See NTP 2011: Govt Allows Spectrum Sharing.)

What is the broadband and rural teledensity growth strategy? The industry cheered when you mentioned the 'Right to Broadband' in your speech. Alas, we have had targets before and we got another one in your speech. There is, unfortunately, no clarity as to how this target will be achieved. The roadmap is missing. The same is true for rural teledensity. The draft has laid down a target of increasing rural teledensity from 35 percent to 60 percent by 2017 and finally to 100 percent by 2020. The industry needs a roadmap to help it achieve these targets.

What are the ramifications of the domestic manufacturing targets?: This is clearly a positive step and is likely to benefit Indian manufacturing, but how will this be managed? Will there be an impact on import duties? Does this cover all technologies? And will all the rules be the same for domestic and foreign-owned vendors?

What financial impact will the policy have on India's service providers? There was a contradiction in the Draft NTP, which I am mentioning in spite of strong advice to refrain from doing so. You stated: "In achieving the goals of national telecoms policy 2011, revenue generation will play a secondary role." Do you expect the industry stakeholders to simply accept that their revenues and profits will be hit in order to achieve the NTP's targets? The operators are expected to pay top dollar for spectrum and invest in new networks, yet soak up the financial impact of the abolition of intra-India roaming charges in a market where ARPU levels are already at rock bottom. The operators will want to ask, "What's in this for us?" (See NTP 2011: RIP Domestic Roaming! and NTP 2011: 100% Rural Teledensity by 2020.)

In the end, Mr Sibal, the draft has left many in the industry with a sense that they have seen it all before and that there is still little clarity in many of the sector's key areas. We all hope this situation can be remedied before the draft becomes set policy.

Yours truly,

Gagandeep Kaur, Editor, Light Reading India

BharatBlog

Why is Reliance Jio Going East For 4G launch?

Jatinder Singh

23 May 2013 - The company has taken smart steps to test its capability in a market where the risk is minimal and manpower cost is low

Vodafone: Happy To Help?

Gagandeep Sodhi

22 May 2013 - Here is an account of an interesting experience at a Vodafone store earlier this week

MORE BLOGS

Nitin Bhandari, AVP, New Products & Partnerships,...

NTT DoCoMo Shares Learnings From Successful...

Aircel Discusses QoS, Backhaul Challenges...

Bharat Broadband: What Lies Ahead

Videocon CEO Bets On FDD Advantage

Interview: Rajiv Bawa, Chief Representative,...

ALL LR VIDEOS

Events
Webinars

No Matching Document

	Yes, it offer faster mobile broadband service that will simplify my life
	No, only if it offers killer apps
	Maybe, if the industry shows strong commitment
	Not sure

BharatBlog

NTP 2011: An Open Letter to the Telecom Minister

BharatBlog

Why is Reliance Jio Going East For 4G launch?

Vodafone: Happy To Help?

Polls