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The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the National Telecom Policy(NTP) 2012, which has been released after a delay of over a year. Originally intended to be NTP 2011, the draft policy was releasedfor public comments only in October 2011, forcing it to berechristened NTP 2012. The actual timelines for implementation ofindividual announcements within the new telecom policy are yet tobe made known. With the new policy in place, consumers who use national roamingcan now expect to pay local call charges though it is unclear when‘free roaming' will be initiated. At present, consumers paylocal call charges and a premium when travelling outside theirservice area. The policy also allows national number portability, but again, withno visible timelines. Other forward-looking propositions like resale of services couldbecome critical in the backdrop of the Supreme Court's cancellationof 122 licences, which will cease to exist as of August 1, 2012. Asharp reduction in the competition level from 14 operatorscurrently to 7-8 operators could be made up by allowing mobilecompanies to set up resellers. Services resale is universallyrecognised as a way to increase competition without duplicatinginfrastructure or fragmenting the spectrum. Additionally, itmentions cloud computing, next generation networks, IPV6 and Voiceover Internet Protocol (VoIP) as thrust areas — all of whichare forward-looking and embrace future technologies. It remains tobe seen whether average Internet users will be allowed to use VoIP,especially since this move has been opposed vehemently over thelast 5 years by cellular mobile operators. Apart from these, experts say, there is very little in the policythat will help end the impasse faced by the telecom sector.Spectrum pricing, reserve price for the upcoming 2G auctions,historical pricing of spectrum for operators who have receivedspectrum beyond 6.2 MHz and the more recent contentious issues ofrefarming, etc, will have to be dealt with through executivedecisions, most of which fall outside the purview of the NTP 2012announcement. It is also unlikely that the policy by itself will see any majorreestablishment of investor confidence, which has been on thedecline since late 2010. Both Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) anddomestic investments faced a sharp decline during 2010-11vis- -vis previous years, according to a recent PWC report. Thetrend has continued downwards even for the fiscal year ending 2012. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as China Custom Roll Cage , Wire Mesh Cage Manufacturer, and more. For more , please visit Wire Security Cages today!
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