The Telecom Ministry today said it would review Trai Act and Indian Telegraph Act to address regulatory inadequacies and impediments in the effective discharge of their functions.
Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal, while unveiling the draft National Telecom Policy, said that in order to make Trai Act and Indian Telegraph Act more effective as per the current requirements, the government will review the rules and regulations to make them more effective.
"The draft National Telecom Policy (NTP)-2011 will review the regulator's Trai Act-1997 and Indian Telegraph Act-1885 with a view to addressing regulatory inadequacies/impediments in effective discharge of its functions and other allied legislations in furtherance of the policy objectives," he said.
The draft also calls for enacting a separate Spectrum Act which inter-alia deals with all issues connected with wireless (spectrum) licences and their terms and conditions including re-farming/ withdrawal of allotted spectrum, spectrum pricing, spectrum sharing, and spectrum trading.
Besides, in order to provide relief to the new telecom operators who have not been able to fully roll-out services, the draft proposes to provide an appropriate framework of exit policy for these service providers.
Sibal also said that the ministry would seek regulator Trai's recommendations for new licensing framework, migration of existing licencees to new framework, and exit policy.
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Last year, Trai had come out with recommendations on Spectrum Management and Licensing Framework.
Further, the draft proposes to establish new licensing regime taking care of the requirements of level playing field, rollout obligations, policy on merger and acquisition and non-discriminatory interconnection while ensuring adequate competition.
The draft NTP-2011 also propose to provide mobile number portability facility on nationwide basis so that users can retain their mobile number while shifting from one service area to another, irrespective of the service provider.