Telecom to be opened up further, says PM

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JULY 4. The Centre will consider ``sympathetically'' the demand of information technology (IT) and Internet industries for ``de-monopolisation'' of under-sea optical fibre connectivity, the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, said here today.

Pointing out that the lack of high-speed broadband connectivity was a major bottleneck to the growth of the IT sector, he said it was for this reason that the Government had constituted a Standing Committee on Bandwidth (viz, capacity of cables to carry digital information). It would include representatives of the user-industry as also service providers.

``In view of the growing demand for Software Technology Parks (STPs) in different parts of the country, the Department of Telecom Services (DTS) is drawing up a plan to set up STPs jointly with the State Government agencies concerned.''

Mr. Vajpayee, who was inaugurating the Rs. 340-crore TIDEL Park set up in record time by the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation to host international players in the software and IT industries, said the Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi's ``repeated request'' for improved telecom services in the State would be fulfilled once the DTS was corporatised before October this year.

Describing the opening of the 1.3-million sq.ft. IT Park as a ``testimony to the convergence of perspective and pro-activism in New Delhi and Chennai'' to exploit the potential offered by IT for economic development, he said the initiatives taken by the Centre to address the ``most critical area of weakness in our telecommunication infrastructure'' had started yielding results.

The steps included the new telecom policy announced last year and putting in place the ``most liberal Internet policies anywhere in the world''. ``Internet services are spreading fast all over the country. And access costs are falling dramatically. However, I recognise that many issues still need to be sorted out if India has to quickly reach global levels of telecom and Internet usage,'' he said.

The Group on Telecom and IT Convergence, under the chairmanship of the Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, was preparing the draft of a new convergence legislation. ``National long-distance telecom services will soon be opened up to foster largescale competition. Similarly, opening up of International long-distance telecom services is also under consideration,'' Mr. Vajpayee said.

Mr. Karunanidhi called for establishment of an Indian Institute of Information Technology Management in Chennai by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, coverage of all blocks in Tamil Nadu under the Central scheme of providing block-level community information centres and establishment of a landing point here for intercontinental under-sea fibre optic cables.

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