The Minister of State for IT and Telecommunication Sachin Pilot on Monday said that the country will soon have a new telecom policy in place.

Speaking on the occasion of inauguration of the new Research and Development facility of digital switch equipment manufacturer Alcatel-Lucent India, he elaborated on the telecom revolution in the country.

He said that in the past few years the country has witnessed exceptional growth in the telecom sector with number of mobile phones crossing 93 crore mark. “In the first phase of telecom revolution between 1998 and 2006, we saw exponential growth. There were about 15-18 million mobile handsets or SIM cards issued every month. Now we have a new telecom policy in place, which is almost ready to roll out," he told reporters.

On the controversial issue of spectrum pricing he said that the 2G auction should fetch a "reasonable market price" for the spectrum.

"Spectrum, as a natural resources, is the property of people of India. We must through the auctions, get reasonable market price for that commodity", he said.

Pilot said that the newly reconstituted ministerial panel headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram, would soon meet soon to spectrum pricing.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had recommended a base price of Rs 3,622 crore for a megahertz of spectrum at pan-India level, which is around 10 times higher than the price for 2G licences in 2008 when A Raja was the Telecom Minister.