New telecom policy by February 2018: Sinha

The telecom department (DoT) looks to finalise the new telecom policy by February and would release its draft by December-end for public comments, Union minister Manoj Sinha said on Tuesday.

"We are trying to bring new telecom policy by February. For this the working group has started the process. We expect to finalise draft by end of December and place it for public comments," the Communications Minister told reporters.

He said that the government expects to complete the first phase of Bharat net project to connect 1 lakh village panchayats with high-speed broadband by the end of November.

Talking about linking Aadhaar with mobile phone number for reverification, DoT Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said that the government will not disconnect mobile numbers of people who do not have the UIDAI number.

She said that the department is waiting for the Supreme Court judgement on Aadhaar issue to decide on action to be taken for mobile numbers of those people who have Aadhaar but do not want to link it with their mobile number.

"We are also working on alternatives for people who are abroad (to help them link their mobile number with Aadhaar)," Sundararajan said.