Telecom dept starts process to disband Digital Communication Commission

The Department of Telecom has begun the process of disbanding the Digital Communication Commission, formerly known as the Telecom Commission, the apex inter-ministerial body formed to make decisions on policy matters and subjects with significant financial implications.

The body comprises the Telecom Secretary as its Chairman, four full-time members, who are ex-officio Secretaries to the Government of India in the Department of Telecommunications and four part-time members who are the secretaries to the Government of India in the concerned Departments.

"The process for seeking cabinet nod to dissolve the Digital Communication Commission has started," an official source told PTI.

Among the ex-officio secretaries, the post of member (technology) and member (services) are lying vacant and the government has no plans to fill them.

 

Member (Finance) Manish Sinha will superannuate in February 2027, the source said.

Formed in 1989, the Telecom Commission was renamed as Digital Communication Commission in 2018. The body helped resolve issues involving senior officials from NITI Aayog, the Finance Ministry, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, etc., that were prone to controversy.

The commission helped in taking decisions on issues like spectrum price, call on recommendations by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

The source said that, post-dissolution of the commission, the final decision at the DoT will be taken by the Telecom Secretary and then approved by the minister and cabinet, as required.