Telecom Commission to meet; from Net Neutrality to mobile phones on flights, here is what is on agenda

Telecom Commission headed by Aruna Sundararajan is scheduled to meet on May 1, 2018. What is likely to be on the agenda of the panel is in-flight connectivity, net-neutrality and the process to allocate the spectrum in E and V bands, which are capable of transmitting data at 1000 megabit per second. Niti Aayog's CEO Amitabh Kant and economic affairs secretary Subhash Chandra Garg are members of the telecom commission. 

Other topics and issues to be taken up for discussion during the meet include ease of doing business, cloud services, machine to machine communication and Regulatory framework for internet telephony. 

If approved, the in-flight connectivity will pave the way for mobile call and data services during domestic air-travel to passengers. But, there is no clarity on the means that will be used for calling. According to experts, travellers will be allowed to make calls via phones offered by the airlines. 

In addition, the commission may take a decision on allocation of spectrum in the E and V bands to the telecom operators, which include via the process of auctioning off the bands, first come first serve basis or fixed fee process. Allocation of the two bands will help the telecom operators to expedite network rollout and save the cost of laying fibre for short distance mobile tower-to-tower data transmission. These two bands will allow the operators to provide mobile connectivity at places where laying the optical fibres is a difficult task. 

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The commission will also take a decision on net neutrality, a controversial issue which has been debated across the world. If approved, the internet service providers (ISPs) will not be able to discriminate in the traffic flow on websites, mobile apps and other platforms where content providers can actually do by paying for the privilege.

By Shiv Prakash Yadav