Ministerial task force on telecom planned

 The government is planning to set up a ministerial task force on telecommunications to chart out a coherent and effective policy that will sort the persistent wranglings between cellular and basic service providers.

 The idea of setting up a task force on telecom was proposed to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee by Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, who has been playing a key role in resolving the differences between cellular and wireless in local loop (WLL) operators.

 Last week, top industrialists, including Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Mittal had called on Advani to express their views.

 Communications Minister Arun Shourie, too, called on Advani and Finance Minister Jaswant Singh to explain the contentious issues in the telecom sector.

 The sources said the task force could be assigned to conduct a detailed study and issue guidelines.