GROWTH TARGET FOR TELECOM SERVICES

New Delhi, 20 December 2005

New Delhi, December 21 (INFA):  About 40 million new telephone connections are proposed to be provided by the all service providers during the next one year.  Of this target, the BSNL/MTNL will provide 22 million. This is a two-thirds increase over last year’s addition of 24 million.

The short-term roadmap is: 28,166 VPTs will be installed by March 2006; 20,350 RCPs will be installed by March 2006; all remaining MARR based VPTs will be replaced by June 2006; telephone on demand will be available in 1,685 commercially unviable SCDCAs from January 2006. It is planned to have three million broadband subscribes by December 2005.  BSNL has planned to extend Broadband coverage to 200 towns in one year.

The medium-term future road map is: A target of 250 million telephone connections by the end of the year 2007 has been planned. It will lead to an average of one telephone connections per household. BSNL has planned to increase its total connections to 125 million by 2007. The Government is continuously striving to connect all villages in the country by telecom facility to extend the benefits of planned development to the rural areas.  To bride the digital divide, following steps have been planned to strengthen public and individuals access in rural and remote areas:

The 66,822 remaining unconnected villages will be progressively provided Village Public Telephones (VPTs) by November 2007 with the support from Universal Service Obligation Fund. This excludes villages lying in thick forest/naxalite infested areas or having less than 100 population.

A second VPT in form of Rural Community phone (RCP) in villages having population of more than 2000 and having no PCO is being provided progressively by September 2007.  It is envisaged to provide 46,253 RPCs in the eligible villages. Phone on demand will be provided in 1,685 commercially unviable SDCAs with the support from USO Fund by various operators in their allocated areas by January 2006.  This is expected to improve the individual access in rural and remote areas.

The Department is also considering a proposal to provide shared passive infrastructure for mobile services with funding from the USO Fund to lower the entry barriers for private operators in 1,685 commercially unviable SDCAs.

The R&D of the BSNL and the MTNL will endeavour to introduce 3G mobile services by 2006.  C-DOT will pilot the 4G technology.  C-DOT is also proposing a joint venture with M/s. Alcated in Chennai for conducting research on wireless Broadband technology and developing equipments for this technology for commercial use.  This proposal is at advance stage of consideration in the Government.

At present the share of indigenous telecom manufacturing is very low compared to total requirement of the Indian Telecom Sector.  This is due to the fact that setting up of manufacturing facility requires very large volumes for viability.  Now BSNL/MTNL are contemplating to promote indigenous manufacturing of telecom equipment to meet various objectives inter-alia, of availability of desired quality/standard products at cost-effective rates, immediate availability of after sales services and development of newer technology in the country.

The trend of modern telecom services is towards mobility with ever-increasing data rates. The RF spectrum is an essential requirement for all these services. Even some of the fixed services, particularly in rural and inaccessible areas are finding the wireless alternative more attractive from initial capital cost (Capex) as well as economy & ease of operation.  High speed data services are also demanding larger amount of spectrum.  The spectrum requirements of security agencies are also increasing.

The main issue at present is availability of adequate spectrum for the growth of telecom services and for introduction of new technologies. A target of 250 million telephone connections by the year 2007 has been announced, out of which 200 million connections are expected to be mobile connections. 

So far, main growth of telecom services has taken place in urban areas and there is an urgent need for expansion of telecom services in rural areas, where the spectrum already allotted to the service providers can be used. Department is taking all the necessary steps for making available the required spectrum for meeting the target of 250 million connections by the year 2007. ---INFA