National Digital Communications Policy-2018

Why in news?

The Union Cabinet has recently approved the National Digital Communications Policy-2018 (NDCP-2018).

What is the policy for?

• The new telecom policy has been formulated in place of the existing National Telecom Policy-2012.
• It comes with a view to cater to the modern needs of the digital communications sector of India.
• Its objective is to facilitate India’s effective participation in the global digital economy.
• The policy aims to ensure digital sovereignty, and the objectives are to be achieved by 2022.

What are the key features?

• The government aims to provide universal broadband connectivity at 50 Mbps to every citizen.
• It has kept a target of providing 1 Gbps connectivity to all Gram Panchayats by 2020 and 10 Gbps by 2022.
• (Right now, average broadband speeds in the country are 5-6 Mbps).
• The policy will work towards ensuring connectivity to all uncovered areas.
• Measures will be taken to attract investments of $100 billion in the Digital Communications Sector.
• The policy includes the objective of training one million manpower for building New Age Skill.
• It also aims at expanding the Internet of Things ecosystem to 5 billion connected devices.
• Establishing a comprehensive data protection regime for digital communications that safeguards the privacy, autonomy and choice of individuals is also a goal.
• It will thus enforce accountability through appropriate institutional mechanisms, to assure citizens of safe and secure digital communications infrastructure and services.
• As part of the new Policy, the Telecom Commission is to be re-designated the “Digital Communications Commission”.

What are the concerns in the sector?

• Investments - Annual investments by mobile phone companies are in the region of around $10 billion annually, which the government aims to increase significantly.
• But it is to be noted that the telecom industry is, mostly, in deep trouble.
• India’s top telecom company, Bharti Airtel, features in Credit Suisse’s list of stressed companies.
• Levies - The government is ambitious in plans with 5G, IoT, M2M and other technologies.
• But the policy has still not cut the very high levels of government levies in this regard.
• India’s levies, including the 18% GST, range from 29-32% as compared to just an 11% VAT rate in China.
• Spectrum prices - There are also no significant plans in cutting high spectrum prices.
• While 100% of spectrum put on auction in 2015 remained unsold due to high spectrum prices, this was as high as 59% in 2016.
• No auctions could take place in 2017 or 2018 due to telcos being cash-strapped.
• Resultantly, revenues accruing to the government from the sector have fallen by around 37% in just the last two years.
• Finances - The precarious finances would mean an unhealthy position in terms of repayment of bank loans.
• More worrying is the ability of telcos to make good their spectrum payment obligations from earlier auctions.
• There is not much likelihood of this improving in the immediate future.
• Facilities - Little progress has been made in providing right-of-way for connecting telecom towers with optic fibre.
• Neither is there a progress in coming up with a sensible policy for the critical E and V bands.
• (Spectrum in E and V band can ease work of telecom operator from laying optical fiber cable, and help them in providing last mile connectivity.
• Data through E and V band can be transmitted with speed of around 1,000 MB per second.)
• Given these, getting the telecom back on track requires a lot more work on addressing the financial and policy issues.

Source: Indian Express, Financial Express

Quick Fact

Internet of Things (IoT)

• It is the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances, and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and connectivity.
• This enables these things to connect, collect and exchange data.
• It creates opportunities for more direct integration of the physical world into computer-based systems, resulting in efficiency improvements, economic benefits, and reduced human exertions.