Centre open to conducive telecom policy, spectrum reform

The Centre is open to framing “more conducive” telecom policies to suit business needs of offering quality service to consumers, and will soon usher in reforms in providing easy access to quality back-end spectrum required for transmitting mobile signals.

“Our efforts will continue in making conducive and progressive policies and creating a business-friendly environment. Industry has to continue to devote efforts to increasing and upgrading quality through innovation and competition,” Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said at India Telecom 2016.

He said the traditional regulatory framework, designed for an era where clear differences existed between services and infrastructure, need to adapt and adjust to new services and convergence.

“As we speak, India has overtaken the US to become the world’s largest Internet market with 343 million users. This talks about progress and achievements of the Indian telecom sector,” Sinha said.

Telecom Secretary JS Deepak said the Department of Telecom is working on ending some of the permits like wireless operating licence and bringing in reforms in back-haul spectrum so that operators are able to conveniently transmit their services.

Back-haul spectrum is used for transmitting signals among mobile towers.

Telecom operators have sought the opening up of new frequency bands — 71-76 gigahertz (GHz) and 50 GHz. Wireless services deployed in these bands are believed to deliver broadband speed of up to 1 GB per second, as in the case of optical fibre.

Deepak said that with the recent spectrum auction, there is no shortage of mobile frequencies in the market and reforms in back-haul spectrum will further ease the load on telecom operators.