New Delhi, Jan 11 (PTI) The Department of Telecom (DoT)will seek to move quickly and take a view on most of sectorregulator Trai's recommendations pending with it, including onnet neutrality and internet telephony, by March 31, a seniorgovernment official said today.
Some of the major recommendations of the TelecomRegulatory Authority of India (Trai) which are with theDoT include proposed measures on ease of doing business,keeping internet open and free (net neutrality), creation oftelecom ombudsman for complaint redressal, and internettelephony.
Speaking at a Broadband India Forum event, DoT SpecialSecretary N Sivasailam said: "The government is keen and thetelecom minister and secretary have also put a timeline onconsideration of Trai recommendation issued up to December 31,2017 and we hope to address most or all of them by March."Trai proposals would be processed and placed before"competent authorities for consideration" within thestipulated timeline, he asserted.
Moreover, Trai is also expected to give its inputs forthe new telecom policy by the end of this month. The telecomdepartment is crafting the new policy in consultation withstakeholders and expecting to finalise it by March.
"We are examining all the representations. Trai itselfhas made a presentation on what they consider to be theirfirst list, and they have also asked us to wait till the endof the month for their formal consultation paper (on NTP) toconclude," Sivasailam said.
Broadband India Forum today also released a reporthighlighting the challenges faced by the mobile handsetmanufacturing sector. The report highlighted three significantissues impacting India's indigenous mobile telephony andtelecom equipment sector growth.
It noted that mobile telephony growth in the country islargely being driven and dependent upon imports. The reportalso highlighted that value added by Indian manufacturers isrelatively small mainly due to high dependence on importedcomponents. PTI MBI ADIMKJ.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.