Telecom Sector Development Strategy Quiz

Telecom Sector Development Strategy

• Key Focus: Strengthening the Telecom Sector and achieving a robust and secure telecom infrastructure.
• Integrate Skill Development: Prioritize skill development aligned with technological advancements in the ICT sector.
• Harness Potential: Leverages the strengths of India's young population and their skills.
• Embrace New Technologies: Cloud computing is identified as a key catalyst for boosting service delivery capabilities both domestically and globally.

Network Security and Communication Assistance

• Address Security Concerns: Policies aim to address emerging challenges in network security and communication security.
• Law Enforcement Support: Provides communication support to law enforcement agencies while maintaining individual privacy and following international practices.
• Government Role in Telecom: Public Sector Units (PSUs) recognized for their role in providing telecom services, particularly in rural and remote areas.

Telecom Regulatory Framework

• Independent Regulator: India's independent telecommunications regulator, TRAI, plays a vital role in regulating the sector.
• Empowering Regulator: The strategy aims to further empower the regulator to ensure orderly growth and balance the interests of consumers and service providers.
• Disaster Mitigation: Focus on developing robust and resilient telecom networks to support disaster mitigation efforts.

Vision and Mission

• Vision: Deliver secure, reliable, affordable, and high-quality converged telecommunication services anytime, anywhere to foster inclusive socioeconomic development.
• Mission:
  • Develop a robust and secure, state-of-the-art network with coverage, particularly in rural and remote areas, to bridge the digital divide.
  • Ensure adequate spectrum availability for IMT services, with a target of 300 MHz by 2017 and 200 MHz by 2020.
  • Promote efficient spectrum use and de-license additional frequency bands for public use.
  • Recognize telecom as an infrastructure sector.
  • Address Right of Way (ROW) issues for telecom infrastructure development.
  • Establish a common platform for interconnection and provide non-exclusive, non-discriminatory access.
  • Strengthen the framework to address environmental and health concerns related to the telecom sector.
  • Promote green policies in telecom and encourage renewable energy sources.
  • Protect consumer interests through informed consent, transparency, and accountability.
  • Strengthen grievance redressal mechanisms for timely and effective resolution.
  • Boost human capital formation and capacity building to address educational and training needs.
  • Encourage collaboration between public and private entities through policy interventions and support.
  • Develop a policy framework for sustainable financing of the sector.
  • Provide fiscal and financial incentives to indigenous telecom product manufacturers and R&D institutions.
  • Transition to IPv6 by 2020 and promote an ecosystem for providing a wide range of services on the IP platform.
  • Improve efficiency, decision-making, and transparency within the institutional, legal, and regulatory frameworks.
  • Establish an institutional framework for coordination between government agencies for laying and maintaining telecom cables, including optical fiber cables, to accelerate broadband expansion.
  • Leverage mobile devices and SIM cards with enhanced features for secure financial and identity authentication services.
  • Promote synergies between broadband roll-out and government programs like e-governance, e-panchayat, MNREGA, NKN, AADHAR, and AAKASH tablet initiatives.
  • Ensure spectrum availability for microwave access/backhaul in appropriate frequency bands.
  • Stimulate demand for broadband applications and services, including local content creation in regional languages, to boost investment in All-Internet Protocol (IP) networks.
  • Promote energy-efficient equipment and renewable energy technologies for long-term sustainability.
  • Periodically review and benchmark the USO fund methodology.
  • Provide continued support from the USO fund for telecom services, including converged communication services, in commercially unviable rural and remote areas.

R&D, Manufacturing, and Standardization

• Promote Domestic Telecom Equipment Manufacturing: Focus on promoting R&D, design, development, and manufacturing in the domestic telecom equipment manufacturing sector.
• Align Technology, Demand, and Standards: Develop a roadmap to align technology, demand, standards, and regulations to enhance the competitiveness of domestic manufacturing.
• Telecom Council: Establishment of a Telecom Council comprising experts from service providers, manufacturers, government, academia, and R&D institutions to:
  • Carry out technology and product development forecasting.
  • Evolve and periodically update the national program for technology/product development.
  • Oversee the implementation of recommendations for promoting indigenous R&D, IPR creation, manufacturing, and deployment of products and services.
• Disaster Mitigation SOPs: Standardized Operating Procedures (SOPs) to aid in effective and early disaster mitigation during emergencies.

Disaster Management and Public Communication

• Reliable Emergency Communication: Ensure reliable means of public communication by telecom service providers during disasters through a regulatory framework.
• ICT for Disaster Management: Encourage the use of ICTs for prediction, monitoring, and early warning of disasters, including timely dissemination of crucial information.
• Unified Emergency Response Mechanism: Facilitate the development of an institutional framework to establish a nationwide Unified Emergency Response Mechanism with a single access number for all emergency services.

Quality of Service and Consumer Protection

• Quality of Service (QoS) Compliance: Strengthen the regulator's role in ensuring compliance with QoS parameters by telecom service providers.
• Transparency in Sales and Marketing: Formulate a Code of Practice for Sales and Marketing Communications to enhance transparency and address security issues related to customer acquisition.
• Consumer Awareness: Support the regulator in enhancing consumer awareness about services, tariffs, and QoS.
• Area Coverage Disclosure: Make it mandatory for telecom service providers to disclose their area coverage information online.
• National Mobile Property Registry: Facilitate the establishment of a National Mobile Property Registry to address security, theft, and other issues, including reprogramming of mobile handsets.
• Consumer Dispute Resolution: Legislative measures to bring telecom consumer disputes within the jurisdiction of Consumer Forums established under the Consumer Protection Act.

Security and Communication Assistance

• Network Security: Telecom Service Providers are mandated to implement adequate measures to ensure the security of communication flowing through their networks.
• Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) Assistance: Provide communication assistance to LEAs through regulatory measures aligned with license guidelines, the Indian Telegraph Act, and international practices, while safeguarding individual privacy. Implement state-of-the-art systems for LEA support.
• National Telecom Institute for Policy Research, Innovation, and Training (NTIPRIT): Strengthen and develop the NTIPRIT as an institute of international repute for capacity building and research in telecom technologies and policies specific to India.

Human Capital Formation and Capacity Building

• NTIPRIT Repository: Establish a comprehensive repository in NTIPRIT for disseminating telecom-related information, standards, benchmarks, resources, program curriculum, etc.
• National Telecom Schools of Excellence: Develop additional training institutes under the Department of Telecommunications as national-level telecom schools of excellence to provide training to government/PSU officials and other stakeholders.
• Vocational and Non-formal Training Institutes: Promote and expand vocational and non-formal training institutes in urban and rural areas to cater to the skill and training needs of the telecom sector.
• Collaboration with Premier Educational Institutes: Encourage collaboration with premier educational institutions like IITs and telecom research organizations to direct research and development towards field problems.

Role of Public Sector

• Strategic Importance of PSUs: Recognise the strategic importance of Telecom PSUs in supporting government intervention in national security and international matters, including bilateral projects.
• Restructuring of PSUs: Consider restructuring Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) under the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) regarding management, manpower, and equity.
• Operational Synergies: Encourage DoT PSUs to identify and exploit strategic and operational synergies to play significant roles in service provision, infrastructure creation, and manufacturing.
• Mutual Benefit and Competitive Advantage: Leverage the strengths of organizations within the DoT to support their flourishing in the competitive telecom market while adequately addressing the security needs of the nation. Preferential treatment for procurement from these organizations is considered.
• Deployment of Indigenous Products: Recognize and enhance opportunities within Telecom PSUs for deploying indigenously developed Telecom products with Indian Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), thereby supporting domestic manufacturing and strengthening the position of Indian Telecom products in the long run.

Spectrum Management

• Ensure spectrum availability and transparent allocation through market-driven processes.
• Target to make available 300 MHz spectrum for IMT services by 2017, and an additional 200 MHz by 2020.
• Promote efficient use of spectrum with regular audits of spectrum usage.
• De-license additional frequency bands for public use.

Telecom Infrastructure

• Recognize telecom as an infrastructure sector to maximize the potential of ICT for development.
• Address Right of Way issues for setting up telecom infrastructure.
• Mandate a common platform for interconnecting various networks, ensuring non-exclusive and non-discriminatory access.

Environmental and Health Concerns

• Strengthen the framework to address environmental and health concerns related to the telecom sector.
• Promote green policies and incentivise renewable energy sources for sustainability.

Consumer Protection

• Protect consumer interests by promoting informed consent, transparency, and accountability in service quality, tariffs, and usage.
• Strengthen grievance redressal mechanisms for timely and effective resolution.

Human Capital Development and Public-Private Partnerships

• Strengthen the institutional framework to enhance human capital formation and capacity building.
• Encourage partnerships between public and private sector organizations to enable optimized resource utilization for infrastructure development.

Policy Framework and Incentives

• Evolve a policy framework for financing the sector with long-term sustainability in mind.
• Provide fiscal and financial incentives to domestic telecom product manufacturers and research institutions.

Internet Protocol (IPv6)

• Achieve substantial transition to IPv6 in the country by 2020 in a phased and time-bound manner.
• Encourage an ecosystem for providing diverse services on an IP platform.

Institutional Framework

• Strengthen the institutional, legal, and regulatory framework to improve efficiency, decision-making, and transparency.

Right of Way Policies

• Review and simplify sector policies regarding Right of Way for establishing telecom infrastructure.
• Facilitate the development of guidelines for common service ducts, in consultation with relevant stakeholders.

Telecom Infrastructure Mapping

• Mandate mapping and submission of infrastructure asset information on a standard-based interoperable GIS platform by telecom infrastructure providers.

Site Clearance Procedures

• Streamline and expedite the Standing Advisory Committee on Frequency Allocation (SACFA) clearance process for site approvals.

Green Telecom

• Foster the increased use of renewable energy sources for powering telecom networks.
• Promote energy-efficient equipment, including low-power wireless devices.

In-Building Solutions (IBS) and Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS)

• Promote the use of IBS and DAS, coordinating siting with the Ministry of Urban Development.
• Integrate IBS and DAS requirements into development plans for rural and urban areas.

EMF Radiation Standards

• Conduct periodic reviews of EMF radiation standards for mobile towers and devices, referencing international safety standards.

Aesthetics and Disaster Mitigation

• Encourage innovative methods like camouflage, landscaping, monopole towers, and stealth structures to enhance aesthetics.
• Implement sectoral Standard Operating Procedures to ensure effective and early disaster mitigation.

Public Communication in Disasters

• Create a regulatory framework for reliable public communication by telecom service providers during emergencies.

ICT for Disaster Management

• Encourage the use of ICT in predicting, monitoring, and warning about disasters.
• Facilitate a unified emergency response mechanism with a single national access number.

Quality of Service and Consumer Protection

• Strengthen the regulator to ensure compliance with performance standards and prescribed Quality of Service (QoS) parameters.
• Implement a Code of Practice for Sales and Marketing Communications to enhance transparency and address customer acquisition security concerns.
• Promote consumer awareness about services, tariffs, and QoS.
• Mandate web-based disclosure of area coverage by telecom service providers.

Mobile Property Registry

• Establish a National Mobile Property Registry to address security, theft, and mobile handset reprogramming concerns.

Consumer Disputes Resolution

• Introduce legislative measures to bring consumer disputes with telecom service providers under the jurisdiction of Consumer Forums.

Security and Network Integrity

• Mandate security measures for telecom service providers to ensure network communication security.
• Implement mechanisms to facilitate communication assistance to law enforcement agencies.
• Create an institutional framework for ensuring secure devices and networks.
• Develop national capacity in key areas relevant to network security.

Security in Cyberspace

• Emphasize indigenously manufactured multi-functional SIM cards with secure chips.
• Prioritize the development of a comprehensive electronics ecosystem, including wafer fabs.
• Mandate standards for safety, security, and all communication network components.

Sharing Security Costs

• Develop a rational criterion for sharing security implementation costs between the government and service providers.

Skill Development

• Assess telecom human resource requirements and develop a roadmap for skill development.
• Collaborate with the Ministry of Human Resource Development to update telecommunications academic curricula.
• Create an enabling framework with funding to address human resource demands in the sector.

National Telecom Institute

• Strengthen and develop the National Telecom Institute for Policy Research, Innovation, and Training (NTIPRIT) as a leading institution for capacity building and research.
• Establish a repository for disseminating telecom-related information, standards, and resources at NTIPRIT.

Training Programs

• Develop other training institutes within the Department of Telecommunications to become national level telecom schools of excellence.
• Promote and expand vocational and non-formal training institutes to meet skill needs.
• Encourage collaboration with educational institutions for research and development.

Public Sector Telecom

• Recognize the strategic importance of public sector telecom companies in national security and international projects.
• Consider the restructuring of public sector undertakings in terms of management, manpower, and equity.

Public Sector Synergy and Domestic Manufacturing

• Encourage public sector units to identify and leverage operational synergies for service provision, infrastructure development, and manufacturing.
• Enhance opportunities within public sector telecom companies to deploy domestic products with Indian intellectual property rights to support local manufacturing.

Network Security

• Telecom network security is a growing concern with the introduction of new technologies such as cloud computing.
• Policies are needed to address network security and communication security challenges, as well as communication assistance for law enforcement agencies.
• The National Telecom Policy 2012 (NTP-2012) outlines a clear strategy for addressing these concerns.

Telecom Infrastructure Roles of Government and Private Players

• Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) have played a critical role in providing telecom services in India, particularly in rural, remote, and backward areas.
• PSUs, such as BSNL and MTNL, have significantly contributed to broadband penetration in the country.
• The importance of PSUs in meeting the strategic and security needs of the nation is recognized in the policy.
• The policy acknowledges that PSUs will continue to play an important role in telecom infrastructure.

The Role of the Telecom Regulator

• The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) plays a crucial role in regulating the telecommunication industry, balancing the interests of consumers and service providers.
• NTP-2012 aims to further empower the TRAI to ensure the orderly growth of the telecommunication industry.

Vision for the Telecom Sector

• The National Telecom Policy 2012 envisions secure, reliable, affordable, high-quality converged telecommunication services accessible anytime, anywhere.
• The aim is to use telecom services to accelerate inclusive socio-economic development in India.

Mission to Achieve the Telecom Sector Vision

• To develop a robust and secure telecommunication network with seamless coverage, particularly focusing on rural and remote areas to bridge the digital divide.
• To create an inclusive knowledge society by promoting the proliferation of affordable and high-quality broadband services across the nation.
• To reposition the mobile device as a tool for socio-economic empowerment of citizens.
• To make India a global hub for telecom equipment manufacturing and a center for converged communication services.
• To promote research and development, design, and manufacturing of cutting-edge ICTE technologies, products, and services to meet domestic and global market needs, with a focus on security and green technologies.
• To promote the development of new standards to meet national requirements, generation of intellectual property rights (IPRs), and participation in international standardization bodies to shape global standards.
• To attract both domestic and foreign investment.
• To promote job creation through the implementation of these initiatives.

Objectives of the National Telecom Policy

• Provide secure, affordable, and high-quality telecommunication services to all citizens.
• Increase rural teledensity from around 39% to 70% by 2017 and 100% by 2020.
• Provide affordable and reliable broadband-on-demand by 2015, and achieve 175 million broadband connections by 2017 and 600 million by 2020, with a minimum download speed of 2 Mbps and the option of higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps on demand.
• Enable citizens to participate in and contribute to e-governance in key sectors like health, education, skill development, employment, governance, and banking, to ensure equitable and inclusive growth.
• Provide high-speed, high-quality broadband access to all village panchayats through a mix of technologies by 2014 and progressively to all villages and habitations by 2020.
• Promote innovation, indigenous research and development, and manufacturing to serve local and global markets by enhancing skills and competencies.
• Create a corpus to promote indigenous research and development, IPR creation, entrepreneurship, manufacturing, commercialization, and deployment of state-of-the-art telecom products and services during the 12th five-year plan period.
• Promote the ecosystem for design, research and development, IPR creation, testing, standardization, and manufacturing.
• Establish an appropriate institutional framework to coordinate with different government departments/agencies for laying and maintaining telecom cables, including Optical Fibre Cables, for rapid broadband expansion across the country.
• Leverage the mobile device and SIM card with enhanced features for enabling secure transactional services, including online authentication of identity and financial services.
• Promote synergies between broadband rollout and various government programs like e-governance, e-panchayat, MNREGA, NKN, AADHAR, AAKASH tablet, etc.
• Ensure the availability of adequate spectrum to meet current and future demand for microwave access/backhaul in appropriate frequency bands.
• Stimulate demand for broadband applications and services by working closely with the Department of IT to promote local content creation in regional languages, which would enhance investment in All-Internet Protocol (IP) networks, including NGN.
• Promote the use of energy-efficient equipment and renewable energy technologies to achieve long-term sustainability.
• Undertake periodic reviews of the methodology used for utilizing USO funds and benchmark them against best practices in other countries.
• Provide continued support from USO funds for telecom services, including converged communication services, in commercially unviable rural and remote areas.

R&D, Manufacturing, and Standardization of Telecommunication Equipment

• Promote research and development, design, development, and manufacturing in the domestic telecom equipment manufacturing sector.
• Create a roadmap to align technology, demand, standards, and regulations to enhance the competitiveness of domestic manufacturing.
• Establish a council composed of experts from Telecom Service Providers, Telecom Manufacturing Industry, Government, Academia, and R&D institutions. This council would:
  • Carry out technology and product development forecasting.
  • Develop and periodically update a national program for technology/product development.
  • Serve as a nodal group to monitor and ensure the implementation of recommendations for promoting indigenous research and development, IPR creation, and manufacturing and deployment of products and services.
• Prescribe sectoral Standard Operating Procedures to facilitate effective and early mitigation during disasters and emergencies.

Disaster Management and Telecom

• Recognize the importance of robust and resilient telecom networks to provide proactive support for disaster mitigation, both natural and man-made.
• Create an appropriate regulatory framework for Telecom Service Providers to offer reliable means of public communication during disasters.
• Encourage the use of ICTs in disaster prediction, monitoring, early warning, and swift information dissemination.
• Facilitate the creation of an institutional framework to establish a nationwide Unified Emergency Response Mechanism, accessible through a single number for all emergency services.

Quality of Service and Consumer Protection

• Strengthen the regulator to ensure compliance with prescribed performance standards and Quality of Service (QoS) parameters by Telecom Service Providers.
• Formulate a Code of Practice for Sales and Marketing Communications to improve transparency and address security issues related to Customer Acquisition.
• Support the sector regulator in its efforts to enhance consumer awareness about services, tariffs, and QoS.
• Make the provision for web-based disclosure of area coverage by telecom service providers mandatory.
• Facilitate the establishment of a National Mobile Property Registry to address security, theft, and other concerns, including reprogramming of mobile handsets.
• Undertake legislative measures to bring disputes between telecom consumers and service providers under the jurisdiction of Consumer Forums established under the Consumer Protection Act.

Telecom Security

• Mandate and enforce that Telecom Service Providers take adequate measures to ensure the security of communication flowing through their networks by adopting contemporary information security standards.
• Provide communication assistance to Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) through regulatory measures in line with existing license guidelines, in accordance with the Indian Telegraph Act, with due consideration for individual privacy and following international practices to the extent possible.
• Develop and deploy state-of-the-art systems to provide assistance to LEAs while fulfilling National Security needs.

Cloud Services

• Acknowledge that cloud computing will significantly speed up service design and rollout, enable social networking and participatory governance, and facilitate e-commerce on a scale not possible with traditional technology solutions.
• Implement new policy initiatives to ensure rapid expansion of new services and technologies at globally competitive prices by addressing the concerns of cloud users and other stakeholders. This includes taking specific steps to lower the cost of service delivery.
• Identify areas where existing regulations may impose unnecessary burdens and take consequential remedial steps in line with international best practices to propel the nation to emerge as a global leader in the development and provisioning of cloud services that benefit enterprises, consumers, and Central and State Governments.

Telecom Enterprise Data Services, IPv6 Compliant Networks, and Future Technologies

• Formulate appropriate policies for enterprise and data services to fuel the growth of India's ICTE sector and attract investments.
• Facilitate the role of new technologies in promoting public welfare and enhancing customer choices through affordable access and efficient service delivery.
• Embrace the emergence of new service formats, such as Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications (e.g., remotely operated irrigation pumps, smart grids, etc.), which represent significant opportunities, especially as their rollout becomes more widespread.
• Adopt best practices to address issues related to cloud services, M2M, and other emerging technologies (like encryption, privacy, network security, law enforcement assistance, interoperability, preservation of cross-border data flows, etc.) to promote a global market for India.
• Recognize the importance of the new Internet Protocol (IPv6) to start offering new IP-based services on the new protocol and encourage new and innovative IPv6-based applications in different sectors of the economy by enabling the participatory approach of all stakeholders.
• Establish a dedicated center of innovation to engage in research and development, specialized training, and developing various applications in the field of IPv6.

National Telecom Policy 2012

• Aims to create an inclusive knowledge society through widespread affordable and high-quality broadband services.
• Focuses on repositioning mobile devices as tools for socio-economic empowerment.
• Goal is to establish India as a global hub for telecom equipment manufacturing and a center for converged communication services.
• Promotes Research and Development, Design, and cutting-edge ICTE technologies, products, and services to cater to domestic and global market needs, emphasizing security and green technologies.
• Encourages development of new standards to meet national requirements, generation of IPRs, and participation in international standardization bodies to contribute to the formation of global standards, aiming to make India a leading nation in telecom standardization.
• Seeks to attract both domestic and foreign investment.
• Emphasizes job creation through various policy initiatives.

Objectives

• Provide secure, affordable, and high-quality telecommunication services to all citizens.
• Increase rural teledensity from 39 to 70 by 2017 and 100 by 2020.
• Deliver affordable and reliable broadband on-demand by 2015, achieving 175 million broadband connections by 2017 and 600 million by 2020, with a minimum download speed of 2 Mbps and higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps on demand.
• Empower citizens to participate in and contribute to e-governance in key sectors like health, education, skill development, employment, governance, and banking, to ensure equitable and inclusive growth.
• Provide high-speed and high-quality broadband access to all village panchayats through a combination of technologies by 2014, progressively extending it to all villages and habitations by 2020.
• Promote innovation, indigenous R&D, and manufacturing to serve domestic and global markets by increasing skills and competencies.
• Establish a corpus to promote indigenous R&D, IPR creation, entrepreneurship, manufacturing, commercialization, and deployment of state-of-the-art telecom products and services during the 12th five-year plan period.
• Foster an ecosystem for design, Research and Development, IPR creation, testing, standardization, and manufacturing (the complete value chain) for domestic production of telecommunication equipment, aiming to meet 60% and 80% of the Indian telecom sector demand by 2017 and 2020 respectively, with a minimum value addition of 45% and 65%.
• Prioritize domestically manufactured telecommunication products in procurement, especially for those products with security implications for the country and in government procurement for its own use, in accordance with WTO commitments.
• Develop and establish standards to meet national requirements, generate IPRs, and participate in international standardization bodies to contribute to formulating global standards, making India a leading nation in international telecom standardization.
• Simplify the licensing framework to further extend converged high-quality services across the nation, including rural and remote areas, excluding content regulation.
• Strive for One Nation - One License across services and service areas.
• Achieve One Nation - Full Mobile Number Portability and work towards One Nation - Free Roaming.
• Reposition the mobile phone from a mere communication device to an instrument of empowerment, combining communication with proof of identity, fully secure financial and other transaction capability, multi-lingual services, and a wide range of other capabilities that transcend the literacy barrier.
• Encourage the development of mobile phones based on open platform standards.
• Deliver high-quality seamless voice, data, multimedia, and broadcasting services on converged networks for enhanced service delivery to provide superior user experience.
• Implement a simplified Merger & Acquisition regime in the telecom service sector while ensuring adequate competition.
• Optimize the delivery of services to consumers regardless of their devices or locations through Fixed-Mobile Convergence, thereby making valuable spectrum available for other wireless services.
• Promote an ecosystem for participants in the VAS industry value chain to make India a global hub for Value Added Services (VAS).
• Establish a web-based, real-time e-governance solution to support online submission of applications, including processing, issuance of licenses, and clearances from DoT.

Strategies

Broadband, Rural Telephony, and Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)

• Develop an ecosystem for broadband in close coordination with all stakeholders, including Ministries/Government Departments/Agencies, to ensure the availability of media for last-mile access, an aggregation layer, a core network of adequate capacity, affordable equipment (including user devices, terminals, and Customer Premise Equipment), and an environment for the development of relevant applications.
• Formulate policies to promote competition by encouraging service providers, whether large or small, to provide value-added services under equitable and non-discriminatory conditions.
• Recognize telecom, including broadband connectivity, as a basic necessity like education and health and work towards ‘Right to Broadband’.
• Place special emphasis on providing reliable and affordable broadband access to rural and remote areas through an appropriate combination of optical fiber, wireless, VSAT, and other technologies.
• Fund the initial laying of the optical fibre network to the village panchayat level from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).
• Progressively extend optical fibre connectivity from village panchayats to all villages and habitations.
• Ensure open, non-discriminatory, and technology-neutral access to the Optical Fibre Network.
• Provide appropriate incentives for rural rollout.
• Revise the existing broadband download speed from 256 Kbps to 512 Kbps and subsequently to 2 Mbps by 2015, with higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps thereafter.
• Encourage Fibre To The Home (FTTH) with enabling guidelines and policies, favoring the fast transformation of cities and towns into an Always Connected society.
• Incorporate enabling provisions in the current regulatory framework to optimally utilize existing infrastructure, including cable TV networks, for extending high-quality broadband services in rural areas.
• Establish an appropriate institutional framework to coordinate with different government departments/agencies for laying and upkeep of telecom cables, including Optical Fibre Cables, for rapid expansion of broadband in the country.
• Leverage the mobile device and SIM Card with enhanced features to enable secure transactional services, including online authentication of identity and financial services.
• Promote synergies between broadband rollout and various government programs like e-governance, e-panchayat, MNREGA, NKN, AADHAR, AAKASH tablet, etc.
• Ensure the availability of adequate spectrum to meet current and future demands for microwave access/backhaul in appropriate frequency bands.
• Stimulate demand for broadband applications and services working closely with the Department of IT to promote local content creation in regional languages, enhancing investment in All-Internet Protocol (IP) networks, including NGN.
• Promote the use of energy-efficient equipment and renewable energy technologies to achieve long-term sustainability.
• Undertake periodic reviews of the methodology adopted for utilizing USO funds and benchmark it against best practices followed in other countries.
• Provide continued support from the USO fund for telecom services, including converged communication services in commercially unviable rural and remote areas.

R&D, Manufacturing, and Standardization of Telecommunication Equipment

• Promote R&D, design, development, and manufacturing in the domestic telecom equipment manufacturing sector.
• Create a roadmap to align technology, demand, standards, and regulations to enhance the competitiveness of domestic manufacturing.
• Establish a Council comprising experts from Telecom Service Providers, Telecom Manufacturing Industry, Government, Academia, and R&D institutions.
• The Council will:
  • Carry out technology and product development forecasts.
  • Evolve and periodically update the national program for technology/product development.
  • Serve as a nodal group to monitor and ensure the implementation of various recommendations made for promoting indigenous R&D, IPR creation, and manufacturing and deployment of products and services.
• Promote indigenous R&D, IPR creation, and manufacturing through incentives and schemes.
• Foster industry-academia collaboration to build a strong ecosystem for R&D and innovation in the telecom sector.
• Encourage the use of open standards and open source technologies to promote indigenous innovation and reduce reliance on proprietary technologies.

Other Initiatives

• Implement strategies to promote the growth and development of the mobile VAS industry.
• Promote the use of mobile technology for financial inclusion and facilitate access to financial services by the unbanked population.
• Encourage the adoption of cloud computing in the telecom sector, leveraging its potential to accelerate service roll-out, enable social networking, and facilitate participative governance and e-Commerce.
• Promote the development and adoption of IPv6, the next generation Internet Protocol, to enable new IP-based services, encourage innovative applications in various sectors of the economy, and position India as a leader in IPv6 technologies.
• Formulate policies to facilitate the growth of enterprise and data services to boost India's ICTE sector and attract investments.
• Encourage the emergence of new service formats like Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications and adopt best practices to address related issues, including encryption, privacy, network security, law enforcement assistance, inter-operability, and preservation of cross-border data flows, to promote a global market for India.

National Telecom Policy 2012

• Goal: To make India a global leader in telecommunication and use telecom to drive economic and social development
• Focus: Ensure affordable and quality telecom services in rural areas to overcome development challenges related to health, education, and employment
• Vision: To create a favorable environment for investment and employment in the telecom sector, making India a global hub for Value Added Services (VAS)
• Target: To provide communication assistance to Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) while respecting individual privacy and complying with international practices
• Strategy: To promote an ecosystem for broadband services, including optical fiber networks, wireless, VSAT, and other technologies

Broadband Strategy

• Objective: To make broadband a basic necessity like education and health
• Plan: Lay optical fiber networks to village panchayat level, with funding from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)
• Goal: Achieve broadband download speeds of 2 Mbps by 2015, and at least 100 Mbps thereafter
• Incentivization: Encourage Fibre To The Home (FTTH) with enabling guidelines and policies, fostering an "Always Connected" society
• Leveraging Existing Infrastructure: Utilize cable TV networks to extend high-quality broadband services to rural areas
• Disaster Preparedness: Promote a framework that ensures reliable public communication services by telecom providers during disaster
• Emergency Response: Facilitate a nationwide Unified Emergency Response Mechanism with a single access number for emergency services

Consumer Protection and Quality of Service

• Regulation: Strengthen the regulator to enforce prescribed quality of service (QoS) parameters
• Transparency: Implement a Code of Practice for Sales and Marketing Communications to improve transparency and address customer acquisition security issues
• Consumer Awareness: Support the sector regulator in raising consumer awareness about services, tariffs, and QoS
• Area Coverage: Make web-based disclosure of service area coverage mandatory for telecom providers
• Mobile Property Registry: Establish a National Mobile Property Registry to address security, theft, and reprogramming of mobile handsets
• Dispute Resolution: Legislative measures to bring disputes between telecom consumers and providers under the Consumer Protection Act

Security and Law Enforcement

• Network Security: Mandate Telecom Service Providers to implement information security standards to ensure secure communication within their networks
• Communication Assistance: Provide regulatory measures to assist Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) with communication, in line with license guidelines, the Indian Telegraph Act, while respecting individual privacy and aligning with international practices
• Advanced Systems: Develop and deploy advanced systems to provide assistance to LEAs