The Hindu Business Line : Govt for tech-neutral route to expand rural telephony

THE Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, has said that his Ministry is convinced that the route to increasing tele-density in rural India should be "technology-neutral."

Asking the rural subscribers to shuffle technologies frequently would prove a dampener to the Government's efforts. The technology platform created for telephony in the rural areas — be it of CDMA or GSM — should be adaptable to any later-date technology switch to make it affordable and viable in the long-term for subscribers, Mr Maran pointed out .

The Minister told newspersons here on Wednesday that while the Government is keen on increasing telephone connectivity in the rural areas, its role would be that of a `passive facilitator.'

Even as Mr Maran assured that his Government would be willing to extend a common facility for rural connectivity, he was firm that the towers of BSNL would not be allowed to be used by others.

The Government is working on a blueprint that would see 150 million telephone connections added to the current 100 million within the next three years.

On his Ministry's recent decision to remove circle barriers in four States, including Tamil Nadu, by making mobile-mobile/landline-to-mobile calls as local calls, Mr Maran said this was the first step towards integrating India through telecom and ushering in "one-India one-rate."

Removing all artificial barriers in telecommunication has been his Government's ambition, he added.

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