Which of the following are incorporated in the Government approved National Telecom Policy, 2012 ? 1. Broadband for all with a minimum download speed of two megabits per second 2. India's rural tele-density to be improved from 39% to 70% in the next five years 3. Roaming charges shall be scrapped Select the correct answer using the codes given below :

Correct — D, (d) 1, 2 and 3.

All three statements are in the National Telecom Policy, 2012, so the option that takes 1, 2 and 3 is the answer. Each can be matched to the document.

Statement 1. The policy’s vision is stated as ‘Broadband on Demand’, and its third objective is to provide affordable and reliable broadband-on-demand by 2015 and to achieve 175 million broadband connections by 2017 and 600 million by 2020, ‘at minimum 2 Mbps download speed’, with higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps to be made available on demand. The corresponding strategy is to revise the existing broadband download speed from 256 Kbps to 512 Kbps and subsequently to 2 Mbps by 2015. Two megabits per second as the floor is therefore the policy’s own figure.

Statement 2. The second objective reads: increase rural teledensity from the current level of around 39 to 70 by the year 2017 and 100 by the year 2020. The policy was issued in 2012, so 70 by 2017 is the five-year target the statement describes. The policy expresses teledensity as a number of connections for every hundred people rather than with a percentage sign, and the paper prints the same figures with signs — 39% and 70% — which does not change what is being claimed.

Statement 3. Among the missions listed in the policy is to achieve ‘One Nation - Full Mobile Number Portability’ and to work towards ‘One Nation - Free Roaming’, and among its strategies is to review roaming charges ‘with the ultimate objective of removing the roaming charge across the nation’. The intention to do away with roaming charges is unambiguously in the document, although the policy states it as an objective to be worked towards rather than as an immediate abolition, and a reader should hold that qualification in mind alongside the answer.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)1 and 2 only — ‘1 and 2 only’ accepts the broadband and teledensity targets and rejects the roaming statement, and it is the most understandable of the three wrong options, because roaming charges were not in fact abolished when the policy was issued and continued to be levied for years afterwards. But the question asks what is incorporated in the policy, not what had been achieved by the date of the examination, and the policy contains both a mission to work towards free roaming across the nation and a strategy to review roaming charges with the ultimate object of removing them. Distinguishing a policy’s stated content from its implementation is a habit worth acquiring for this paper, because policy questions are almost always about the document.
• (b)1 and 3 only — ‘1 and 3 only’ drops the rural teledensity target, which is in the policy as its second objective: to raise rural teledensity from about 39 to 70 by 2017 and to 100 by 2020. A candidate may reject the statement because of the way it is printed. The paper attaches percentage signs to figures that the policy states as bare numbers, teledensity being conventionally expressed as connections for every hundred people; and the phrase ‘in the next five years’ is the statement’s own paraphrase of ‘by the year 2017’ for a policy issued in 2012. Neither difference alters the target. Rejecting a true statement because it has been paraphrased is a common way of going wrong on policy questions, and the test to apply is whether the paraphrase changes the claim.
• (c)2 and 3 only — ‘2 and 3 only’ drops the broadband statement, which is the best documented of the three. The minimum download speed of 2 Mbps appears twice in the policy — once in the objective that fixes it as the floor for broadband on demand, and again in the strategy that describes the path from 256 Kbps through 512 Kbps to 2 Mbps by 2015. A candidate might hesitate over the phrase ‘broadband for all’, since the policy speaks of broadband on demand and sets numerical targets for connections rather than promising universal coverage by a date; but the statement’s substance, a minimum speed of two megabits per second, is exactly what the policy prescribes, and no other option in the set is compatible with rejecting it.

The National Telecom Policy, 2012 is the third in the line of Indian telecom policies, after those of 1994 and 1999, and it was framed at the point where the sector’s problem had shifted from connecting people by voice to connecting them to data.

Its vision was ‘Broadband on Demand’. Its objectives included secure, affordable and high-quality telecommunication services for all citizens; raising rural teledensity from about 39 to 70 by 2017 and 100 by 2020; broadband on demand by 2015 with 175 million connections by 2017 and 600 million by 2020 at a minimum download speed of 2 Mbps; and high-speed broadband access to all village panchayats through a combination of technologies, funded through the Universal Service Obligation Fund with optical fibre extended progressively to villages and habitations.

Its other well-known commitments were institutional rather than numerical: to simplify licensing, to move towards One Nation - One Licence, to achieve full mobile number portability across the country and work towards free roaming, to liberalise spectrum so that any band could carry any service in any technology and to permit spectrum pooling, sharing and eventually trading, and to reposition the mobile phone as an instrument of identity and secure transactions rather than only of communication.

For an examination, the policy is best learned as three numbers — 2 Mbps, 70 by 2017, 600 million by 2020 — and three phrases: broadband on demand, one nation one licence, and free roaming.

Key facts

• The National Telecom Policy, 2012 has the vision ‘Broadband on Demand’ and follows the telecom policies of 1994 and 1999.
• Objective: increase rural teledensity from around 39 to 70 by 2017 and to 100 by 2020.
• Objective: broadband on demand by 2015, with 175 million broadband connections by 2017 and 600 million by 2020, at a minimum download speed of 2 Mbps and higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps on demand.
• Strategy: revise the existing broadband download speed of 256 Kbps to 512 Kbps and subsequently to 2 Mbps by 2015.
• Mission: achieve One Nation - Full Mobile Number Portability and work towards One Nation - Free Roaming; strategy 3.14 is to review roaming charges with the ultimate objective of removing them across the nation.
• Other commitments include One Nation - One Licence, liberalisation of spectrum with pooling, sharing and later trading, and broadband to all village panchayats funded through the Universal Service Obligation Fund.

Common traps

• Judging the statements by what had actually happened rather than by what the policy says.
• Rejecting a true statement because the question paraphrases the policy’s wording or attaches a percentage sign to a teledensity figure.
• Assuming that a list of three statements must contain a false one.
• Confusing the 2 Mbps minimum with the 100 Mbps figure, which the policy sets as the higher speed to be made available on demand.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The National Telecom Policy, 2012 set the target of raising rural teledensity to 100 by which year ?

  • (a)2015
  • (b)2017
  • (c)2020
  • (d)2022

  Answer(c) 2020 — the policy’s objective was to raise rural teledensity from about 39 to 70 by 2017 and to 100 by 2020. Option (a) is the year set for broadband on demand, option (b) is the intermediate teledensity target, and option (d) appears in no objective of the policy.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which phrase does the National Telecom Policy, 2012 use for its vision ?

  • (a)Digital India
  • (b)Broadband on Demand
  • (c)Connectivity for All
  • (d)One Nation, One Network

  Answer(b) Broadband on Demand — that is the vision stated in the policy, alongside missions expressed as One Nation - One Licence, One Nation - Full Mobile Number Portability and One Nation - Free Roaming. The other three phrases do not appear as its vision.