Free roaming was one of the major highlights of the draft national telecom policy 2011. If implemented, mobile phones users will not be required to pay extra when on roaming – which the government dubs as its One Nation – One License policy. The Department of Telecom (DoT) has now moved ahead with its proposal after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has given green signal to the body for implementing the zero roaming policy.
According to reports, the DoT has also been directed to allow roll-out of the mobile virtual network operators in the national telecom policy. As per the telecom policy, the MVNOs do not need to own a spectrum but bulk minutes of traffic from mobile companies to sell to their users. The DoT says the move is aimed at realising one-nation, one-licence, by granting pan-India mobile number portability services and ending roaming charges. The final decision on both the policies will be taken by the TRAI, said the regulator. The NTP 2011 is likely to be finalised by April this year.
To refresh your memory, the draft NTP 2011 features Right to Broadband” plan that proposes increasing the broadband downloading speed up to 2Mbps by 2020, increasing tele-density up to 60 percent by 2017 and 100 per cent 2020, availability of 300MHz spectrum by 2017 and another 200 MHz of spectrum by 2020, delinking spectrum license and provision of radiowaves at market price. Read the detailed draft national telecom policy 2011 here.
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