The Hindu : Front Page : Raja lays stress on rural teledensity

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 01, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

Raja lays stress on rural teledensity

R.K. Radhakrishnan

NEW DELHI: With telecom companies in the country adding an average of three lakh mobile phone subscribers a day, the government is expecting a steady flow of income from them, Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology A. Raja said on Friday. “We have… a goose that lays the golden eggs,” he said, explaining his Ministry’s rationale for the allocation of 2G spectrum.

The revenues — called Adjusted Gross Revenue — were Rs.24,381.88 crore in 2007-08. From 2004-05 to the end of the first quarter of 2008-09, the government received over Rs.55,000 crore through the AGR route. Annually, this will stabilise in the region of Rs.25,000 crore. Mr. Raja said he had brought in new players in a bid to push up rural teledensity to ensure that the benefits of the telecom revolution reached the common man. Because the cities were saturated markets, the new players would be forced to look at rural and semi-urban areas. This would automatically mean that teledensity would go up in these areas. Besides, his Ministry was closely monitoring spectrum efficiency to ensure optimum usage of scarce spectrum.

The Minister made it clear that he was not against the existing operators, saying he had ensured a level-playing field for all players in the sector while taking care of the interests of BSNL and MTNL. He asserted that there had been no departure from the National Telecom Policy 99 in the grant of Unified Access Service Licence or allocation of spectrum to new operators.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page

News Update

Stories in this Section