The Hindu Business Line : 10-point plan for telecom

The Union Communications and IT Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, on Thursday spelt out the Government's 10 point programme for the telecommunications sector for the next 5 years including tripling the number of mobile connections to 500 million, enabling handsets for Rs 1,000 and doubling the investments in telecom equipment research and development.

Mr Maran unveiled the programme called Vision 2010 on the occasion of the CEOs round table at the India Telecom 2006. The plan focuses on network expansion, bridging the urban-rural divide, broadband coverage, infrastructure sharing, 3G mobile services, introduction and spread of IPTV and mobile TV & WiMAX, among other issues.

Twenty one industry leaders took part in the discussions. The list included Mr Anil Ambani, Chairman, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group; Mr Sunil B. Mittal, CMD, Bharti Enterprises; Mr Shashi Ruia, Chairman, ESSAR Group; Mr Erik Aas, CEO, Grameen Phone Ltd, Bangladesh; Mr Sanjeev Aga, MD, IDEA Cellular; Mr Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board GSM Association, London; Mr Hakan Eriksson, CTO, Ericsson A.B., Sweden; Mr Asim Ghosh, MD, Hutchison Essar; Mr Darryl Green, CEO, Tata Teleservices Ltd; and Dr Paul Jacobs, CEO, Qualcomm of the US.

While talking about network expansion the Minister said, "the aim was to have 250 million telephone connections by 2007 and by 2010, we aim to have 500 million mobiles. With regard to the geographical coverage, while there would be 85 per cent mobile coverage of the country by 2007, by 2010, 90 per cent coverage will be achieved."

Mr Maran said that India would have 50 million rural connections - by 2007 and 80 million by 2010. "Mobile handsets costing Rs 1,000 would be made available within one year to spur this initiative. It is also important to focus on localisation and development of local content to help bridge the digital divide in development of tools and fonts in various languages in all major Indian languages by 2007," he said.

Mobile services

With regard to third Generation mobile services and WiMAX, Mr Maran said that a 3G policy will be announced in 2007. Other targets include rolling out IPTV in 70 towns by 2007 and 600 towns by 2010 and mobile TV in top 20 cities in 2007.

More Stories on : Telecommunications | Outlook

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Unisys to support Vista

GSM plea on spectrum usage charge rejected

Qualcomm mum on trimming royalty

10-point plan for telecom

Match me if you can, Govt tells pvt players

Now, listen to legends; 100 songs on Nokia phone

Tanla Solutions IPO subscribed 36.18 times

Burrp! forays with 2 portals

Infosys unveils new HR practices

Bluetooth adapter for mobiles

More clarity on Net TV legal status sought

Expert presses for lower trade barriers

IT seminar in Thiruvananthapuram

ADCOM meet from Dec 20

IT's biz as usual

Xerox India launches iGen3