The Hindu Business Line : Telecom operators not investing in new tech: IT Minister

Chennai, Feb. 21 Telecom operators are not willing to invest in new technology that will render telecom services at prices cheaper than what they are presently, according to Mr A. Raja, Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology.

“Operators are not ready to use new technology. Unfortunately they are not willing to invest in telecom infrastructure. They only want more spectrum,” he said after the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications and IT, IIT Madras and Reliance Communications for setting up a Telecom Centre of Excellence.

Adopting new technology, he said, could help bring down the price of telecom services to as low as about 10 paise. “Indian operators say they offer the lowest tariffs in the whole world. But, what about the purchase parity in India versus that in other countries? Look at the wages of our people and those in the rest of the world. How can we compare tariffs in India with that in the rest of the world?” he said.

Unless tariffs were reduced to such levels that the rural population of the country could afford to make telecom a part of their lives, we cannot claim the lowest tariffs, he said. “If operators adopt new technology by which they can squeeze in more subscribers per MHz, I foresee, in the next two years, a situation where voice calls may be made available for free and telecom value-added services charged at 10 paise (intra circle) and 25 paise (inter circle),” he said.

Addressing authorities in charge of the new Telecom Centre for Excellence, he urged them to find a “via media to increase productivity” of telecom services and said the DoT would be willing to pay “any amount to buy and use” the technology.

Based on a private-public partnership model, the Centre would occupy about 5,000 sq ft at the upcoming IIT Research Park in Chennai and would involve an initial investment of Rs 5 crore each from DoT and Reliance Communications, over a five-year period. Besides IIT faculty and students, candidates would be hired from outside to work at the Centre.

“We would like to create significant intellectual property and push for it to be accepted into the international telecom standards,” said Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Coordinator for the project.

The Centre will facilitate indigenous telecom research and aim to establish competency in wireless telecommunication, he said. This includes developing bandwidth-efficient wireless technologies, active infrastructure sharing technology for optimising infrastructure, security aspects of infrastructure, exploring energy-efficient technology for telecom infrastructure, macro infrastructure planning for sustained growth and integration and benchmarking of technology.