By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, AUG 26, 2024: THE Minister of Communications and Development of North Eastern Region Jyotiraditya Scindia along with Dr Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, Minister of State for Communications held the second meeting with the recently constituted Stakeholders Advisory Committee (SAC) on Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) on Friday. The initiative by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is aimed at engaging all stakeholders in expanding and shaping the future of India's telecommunication ecosystem and fostering inclusive and collaborative policy decision-making.

During the first SAC on TSP, certain focus areas were identified. In today's meeting, discussions centered about international standards and India's share in Intellectual Property and Standard Essential Patent (SEP), connectivity gaps in telecom and quality of telecom services.

SAC members emphasised systematically aligning research to 'India's needs' and put in place a vibrant standards community. India has already taken various initiatives like launch of Bhart6G Vision and Bhart6G Alliance, patent and IPR support framework, commissioning of testbeds, etc., and country can aspire for achieving 10% of all 6G patents and 1/6th contributions to global standards promoting India's needs.  SAC proposed a 3-year roadmap for achieving it.

The SAC expressed the view that, for India to become a deep tech leader, penetration of both wireline and intelligent wireless broadband networks, with reliable connectivity, is critical. The TSPs sought supportive policy framework to encourage investments towards the path of 100% broadband coverage in country. Various reasons and possible measures to improve the quality of telecom service were also discussed.

Minister Scindia asked the SAC members to define a critical path to achieve the targets discussed and to define roles they see for different stakeholders, including the government, in achieving the same. He also exhorted TSPs to take all necessary measure to ensure that citizens get good quality of telecom services.

Six distinct Stakeholders Advisory Committees (SACs) have been constituted by Minister Scindia to provide valuable insights to the DoT on various matters pertaining to it. They are aimed at facilitating a consistent two-way dialogue with government on matters related to telecommunication sector. Industry thought leaders, top CEOs, academicians, researchers, entrepreneurs and start-ups are members of six advisory committees (SACs).