In an attempt to give a boost to the image of ministry of communications and IT which has been under intense attack in recent days, Mr Kapil Sibal on Saturday announced a slew of measures to be rolled out in next 100 days including initiating work for a new telecom policy.
Mr Sibal has set the 100 days agenda for all the three departments posts, information technology (IT) and telecom.
“We will hold consultations with stakeholders to evolve a clear and transparent regime which will cover licensing, spectrum allocation, spectrum sharing, spectrum trading and mergers and acquisitions in a technology agnostic environment,” said Mr Sibal. The department will initiate dialogue with department of space, information and broadcasting and defence on vacation of spectrum. The department will try to identify defence band and civilian band. “Spectrum allocations, availability and status of pending applications for spectrum shall be published on the department’s web site,” said Mr Sibal. He said that immediate steps will be taken to resolve outstanding security issues in the next 100 days including those in telecom equipment procurement, Blackberry and subscriber verification. Steps will be taken to enable operators to launch 3G services in their entire plenitude without delay. Currently the 3G operators have been asked not to allow video calls as it couldn’t be intercepted in real time. Steps will be taken to establish the central monitoring system which will facilitate and prevent misuse of lawful interception facility.
The minister said that action will be initiated to formulate a comprehensive ‘National Telecom Policy 2011’. “Some 11 years have passed since NTP ’99 and many changes have taken place thereafter,” said Mr Sibal. Mobile number portability will be launched in the whole country in the next 100 days.