Jaswant Singh

As the Chairman of the Group on Telecommunications (GoT) at
the time of formulation of NTP 1999, Jaswant Singh came out with four remarkable
suggestions which have subsequently accepted by the government, has shaped the
current telecom industry. These are, opening up of national long-distance
telecom services to private operators from January 1, 2000, review of opening of
international long distance telephony to competition by the year 2004, assigning
of arbitration role to TRAI and corporatization of the Telecommunication
Department by 2001. With GoT's recommendation, the government has decided to
strengthen the role of TRAI by assigning to it the arbitration function for
resolving any dispute between the government and any licencee. Also, Singh has
strongly advocated that the government should not allow voice telephony on the
Internet, as the internet service providers will also become fixed telephone
service providers.