Union Minister for Communications & IT Ravi Shankar Prasad, who assumed office in June 2014, already has a string of achievements to boast, including a spectrum auction that fetched record revenues. The auction had raked in about ₹1.10-lakh crore to the exchequer, following the fierce bidding of the radio waves.

Another feather in cap could be the turnaround of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), which posted a loss of about ₹8,000 crore when the BJP Government took over. For the financial year 2015, the State-owned telecom operator posted an operating profit of ₹672 crore (compared with an operating loss of ₹691 crore in the previous fiscal), while its revenue rose by 4.1 per cent. In an interview with BusinessLine , the Minister answered questions on net neutrality, call drops and the next round of auction. Excerpts:

For the telecom industry, the biggest hope is that the Centre would auction premium 4G spectrum in the 700 MHz band, a frequency that would support broadband and high-speed data services in the country. What is the status?

We are awaiting TRAI’s recommendation on that. It’s an ongoing process. A lot of spectrum is expected to be released by the Defence, and spectrum sharing and trading norms are also in place, so that (scarcity of spectrum) will not be an issue at all. What is important is the judicious use of existing spectrum.

Every telecom operator in the country has either launched or is gearing up to launch 4G services but BSNL is lagging. What are your plans for the operator?

I have given complete freedom to BSNL, and they are doing a lot on the Wi-Fi front. BSNL and MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd) have already launched 3G in many circles.

The Finance Minister in the Budget 2015 accounted ₹42,000 crore as revenues from telecom service, including income from auctions. However, there has been no auction this year. Will there be a shortfall in this revenue target?

Jaitley, who is a very competent Finance Minister, will say that the revenue target will be met certainly. We expect a good amount of revenue to come in from trading and sharing itself.

Your opinion on the raging issue of net neutrality…

TRAI is considering the entire nuances of net neutrality, including the over-the-top service (OTT) providers. I am awaiting TRAI’s report before I take any decision, while the Government of India has not taken any view. I am of the opinion that internet is one of the finest creations of the human mind, it should not be the monopoly of a few, and it should be accessible to all.

Operators such as Airtel and Vodafone India have announced fresh investments in upgrading networks in response to the call drop issue. What more needs to be done?

I appreciate India’s mobile companies for spreading mobile telecom services across the country. But providing quality services is also their responsibility.

They need to do more as good connectivity is necessary for ‘Digital India’.

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