National

PM lauds telecom reforms

By Our Special Correspondent

The Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, inaugurating the telecom services of the Bharati Telenet by making the first call to the Prime Minister, A. B. Vajpayee, from Chennai on Wednesday. Looking on are the chairman of the Bharati Group, Sunil Bharati Mittal (centre), and other executives of the company, Rajan B. Mittal (left) and Badri Agarwall. — Photo: T. A. Hafeez

NEW DELHI APRIL 3. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, today received the first call from the first private basic phone operator in Tamil Nadu. Receiving the call from the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, he commended the pace of liberalisation in the telecom sector, saying this was one segment of the economy in which the number of fixed and mobile phones and subscribers had increased dramatically but tariffs for the consumer had fallen drastically.

The private company, Bharti, has launched its basic services under the brand name Touchtel. It has been successfully operating cellular services here since the mid 1990s. It is aiming big in the telecom sector with plans to run basic and cellular services on a countrywide basis, besides emerging as an international and national long-distance operator. The company will be locked in a four-way battle for the Indian telecom market with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Reliance and a consortium of companies including the Tatas, the BPL, the Birlas and AT & T.

Bharti received the licence after a prolonged dispute with the Government. It refused to pay up crores of rupees in arrears for the Punjab licence which it had purchased from an Andhra Pradesh-based entrepreneur. The company paid the licence fee under protest after the Government appointed an arbitration panel to look into its claims.

However, the company is still far short of fulfilling its obligation of providing village public telephones (VPTs) in its first basic telecom circle of Madhya Pradesh. It has installed only 400 VPTs as against its commitment of providing 16,500 VPTs by September 30, 1999.

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