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Panel on limited mobility to submit report on time

Information Technology Minister Pramod Mahajan said on Monday that the Group on Telecom and IT would keep its deadline of April 30 for finalising the report on the controversial limited mobility issue.

The meeting of the Group headed by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha held on Monday to take a view on limited mobility issue, however, remained inconclusive and it agreed to have another meeting shortly.

Emerging from a three-hour meeting, Mahajan expressed confidence that the Group would be able to submit its recommendations within the stipulated time-frame of April 30.

Mahajan said Department of Telecommunications made a detailed presentation on various aspects of limited mobility but declined to give details of the meeting.

The government, last week, had unexpectedly referred the issue to the group on convergence, even as the matter was before the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal.

The high-powered group has been asked to give its report before April 30 to determine whether the New Telecom Policy 1999 permitted limited mobility services to basic operators and parameters of introducing the same with regard to level playing field, if the policy permitted it.

If limited mobility is found not permissible under NTP, the recommendations would offer ways by which the policy can be suitably modified to facilitate faster achievement of tele-density targets.

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