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Sibal unveils 100-day agenda
New Delhi, January 1 Sibal, who was given charge of the ministry after A Raja resigned in November over allegations of a scam in 2G spectrum allocation, said that a new and comprehensive National Telecom Policy 2011 will be formulated and would spell out "clear and transparent" guidelines. "Eleven years have passed since NTP'99 and many changes have taken place thereafter. Action will be initiated to formulate a comprehensive NTP 2011," the Minister told reporters after releasing the 100-day agenda for his ministry. He, however, did not elaborate if changes would be made to the existing NTP'99 policy in respect of allocation of spectrum on the basis of first-come first-served. Sources, however, said that revenue share would continue to be the regime for payment of licence fee by operators. The Department of Telecom (DoT) will hold consultations with key stakeholders to evolve a "clear and transparent" regime covering licencing, spectrum allocation, tariffs/pricing, linkage with roll-out performance, spectrum sharing, trading and mergers and acquisition. The announcement comes on the heels of the controversy surrounding the allocation of 2G spectrum in 2008 at 2001 prices. On the increasing complaints over pesky calls from telemarketers, he said regulator TRAI's recommendations on ending the nuisance would come into effect from February 1 and without further delay. For the Department of Post, Sibal has plans to collaborate with leading banks -- IDBI, HSBC and ICICI Bank -- to provide cards (on the line of credit cards) to rural people in order to facilitate non-cash based transactions for purchase of products and services. The card -- 'White label Pre-paid Cards' -- will come with pre-determined cash value and could be operated at merchant locations, ATMs and designated post offices subject to approval by the Reserve Bank of India. To tackle the menace of cyber crime, Sibal said the government will frame and notify rules for data protection and liabilities of service providers under the Information Technology Act as part of the 100-day agenda. Rules will be framed in respect of key sections viz 43A (Data Protection), 70A (Protection of Critical Information Infrastructure), 70B (Agency to handle Cyber Security), 79 (Liabilities of Service Providers) relating to cyber security in the Information Technology Act, he said. On the focus of the new telecom policy, he said three elements -- reasonable revenue for government, affordable services to users and robust growth of the sector -- would be kept in mind while framing the new policy. "We need to balance all these three elements," Sibal said, adding that the government should not get revenue at the cost of industry while industry should not make super normal profits at the cost of consumers by keeping tariffs high. He also emphasised that spectrum needs to be made available to meet the demand and the DoT would initiate a dialogue with the Department of Space, Ministries of I&B and Defence to get the spectrum vacated for civil use. On extending Mobile Number Portability, a service that allows subscribers to retain their number while changing the service provider, from Haryana to the rest of the country, the Minister said that country-wide launch of MNP was on DoT's priority list. The government had launched the service from Haryana in November and had announced to cover the remaining parts of the country by January 20. On the launch of 3G services, which have been delayed due to security concerns, he said: "Steps would be taken to enable operators to launch services in their entire plenitude without delay. — PTI
Rs 73.73 cr collected
as penalty
New Delhi, January 1 “Total penalty is about Rs 219 crore for missing roll-out obligations. We had generated demand for over Rs 78 crore of which the operators have submitted Rs 73.73 crore,” Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters here. Etisalat DB, Loop Telecom, Uninor, Sistema-Shyam and Aircel are among the operators who have submitted the liquidated damages (penalty), the minister said, adding that more notices are going to operators. Asked whether
the matter would end with the payment of penalty or licences could still be cancelled, Sibal said: “A decision will be taken after due consideration.” Etisalat DB Telecom, a joint venture between realty major Swan and UAE-based Etisalat, has paid Rs 9.9 crore for missing roll-out deadline in four circles. The company, however, stated that it was paying the penalty ‘under protest’. Uninor, a joint venture between another realty player Unitech and Telenor of Norway, has also made payment but did not disclose the amount of penalty. Uninor had said that various factors, including delay in clearances required for each site, new last minute pre-launch testing requirements and new equipment security clearance processes, came in the way of roll-out and were beyond the company's control. Sistema-Shyam, a CDMA mobile operator, has also paid about Rs 11 crore to the Department of Telecom (DoT) towards missing the roll-out obligations. All operators are given 15-days to respond to DoT’s notice for paying penalty. The DoT is hoping to get more money in the next few days when the 15-day period would lapse in the case of other service providers. Licencees are required to roll out the services in 90 per cent of the service area in metros and 10 per cent in district headquarters within 12 months from the date of award of licences. Total penalty cannot exceed Rs 7 crore per licensing area and the telecom companies get 52 weeks before their licences are cancelled.
— PTI
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