The current national telecom policy of India was badly drafted and dishonestly implemented. After the 2G scam a need was felt to have a new telecom policy for India. In this background, the national telecom policy of India 2011 was proposed.This is a good step in right direction. However, many crucial aspects have still not attracted the attention of Indian government. The proposed National Telecom Policy 2011 must be Techno Legal in nature, suggests Praveen Dalal, managing partner of New Delhi based law firm Perry4Law and leading techno legal expert of India. It must be legally effective and technologically sound. Presently, issues like Encryption, VOIP, Satellite Phones, Spectrum Allocation, etc are not properly addressed by Indian Government, informs Dalal.
Similarly, development of a National Frequency Allocation Plan (NFAP) of India 2011 is also urgently required. This is very important for the growth of Wireless Communication in India. With a greater access to wireless communication methods, the aim of having maximum Internet Connectivity can also be achieved, suggests Dalal.
However, there seems to be a disagreement among various government departments regarding the NFAP 2011 and it must be resolved before proceeding further. Now an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGM) will consider all the available views and would finalise the NFAP 2011.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has also sought the views of the Planning Commission on how to efficiently use spectrum. DoT has also asked for vacation of an additional 80 MHz from the defence services to meet the needs of the telecom industry. The EGM has to take the final call in this regard very soon.
