The government on Tuesday came out with the draft of new telecom policy ‘National Digital Communications Policy 2018’, with an aim to create 40 lakh new jobs by 2022, attract $100 billion investment in the sector and ensure broadband coverage at 50 mbps for every citizen.
Firstpost reported that the draft also proposes to address woes of debt-ridden telecom sector by reviewing licence fees, spectrum usage charges, universal service obligation fund levy — all of which add to cost of telecom services — under the new policy for enhancing ease of doing business in the sector.
The National Digital Communications Policy draft said it aims to accomplish provisioning of broadband for all, creating 40 lakh additional jobs in the digital communications sector and enhancing the contribution of the digital communications space to 8 per cent of India’s GDP from about 6 per cent in 2017. Under the new policy, the government aims to enable fixed line broadband access to 50 percent of households and start landline portability services.
The policy suggests providing universal broadband coverage at 50 mbps to every citizen and providing 1 gbps (gigabit per second) connectivity to all gram panchayats of India by 2020 and 10 gbps by 2022. It proposes to adopt “Optimal Pricing of Spectrum” to ensure sustainable and affordable access to digital communications.
The draft policy also proposes recognising of mid-band spectrum, particularly the 3 GHz to 24 GHz range, for next-generation networks. It also outlined a roadmap for high in demand backhaul spectrum for transmitting signals between mobile towers in E and V band as per international best practices.
Additionally, the policy aims to remove regulatory barriers and reduce the regulatory burden that hampers investments, innovation and consumer interest. The draft policy also proposed to rationalise taxes and levies on digital communications equipment, infrastructure and services.
