Sibal highlights the key features of the NTP 2011 -

Announcing the broad framework of the National Telecom Policy 2011, Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communications and IT has said that a directional shift in policy was required, post the 2G issue.

Sibal also said that spectrum would henceforth be awarded on a market-based pricing mechanism, recommendations for which would be formulated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRA). The licences granted to telecom companies will be in the nature of unified licence and licence holders will be free to offer any service.

Moreover, Sibal is of the view that the new policy would create a level playing field for operators in the telecom space. He said the new policy will not be introduced with retrospective effect.

Further, he said, cancelled licences will be re-allocated under the new policy. For a fixed amount of cancelled licences, any amount of additional licences will be allocated under the market pricing mechanism. There would now be a uniform rate of revenue share to be paid by the operators as spectrum charge to the government. Also, no licence would be issued with initial or start-up spectrum of 4.4 Mhz and will be separately charged. Existing operators, including those from the public sector, will now have to pay for additional spectrum.

The TRAI is expected to submit its recommendations on the new pricing mechanism shortly.

The broad contours of the new policy include: