Neeraj Mittal takes charge as DoT secretary

Neeraj Mittal Wednesday assumed charge as the new Department of Telecommunications (DoT) secretary.

Mittal, a Tamil Nadu cadre 1992-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, will now shortly meet telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, as well as all the senior officials of the department.

The senior bureaucrat is taking charge of DoT at a time when key issues pertaining to the sector need to be finalized. For instance, he will be tasked to decide on the critical issue of spectrum, particularly satellite airwaves, E and V band spectrum as well as 6 GHz spectrum. The telecom and technology industries are fighting it out over the allocation method.

Apart from that, a decision must be taken on over-the-top (OTT) regulation. Even though the issues are currently being debated by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), a final decision has to be taken by the government.

“We welcome Neeraj Mittal, IAS, as the telecom secretary and are enthused with him taking charge of the dynamic telecom sector of India. Mittal has rich experience and accomplishments in various government roles, and we believe that his expertise and leadership will bring forth many positive developments to drive further growth and prosperity for the industry,” SP Kochhar, director general of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said.

COAI represents all the three private telecom operators –Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.

“We have had the opportunity to work with him during his earlier role as the Principal Secretary – IT Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu, whereby he is aware of the issues faced by the industry in terms of RoW and development of telecom infrastructure. His inherent knowledge and support on such issues will help the industry overcome the challenges faced in pan-India 5G deployments, besides other industry issues,” Kochhar added.