Date:27/04/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/04/27/stories/2005042707171800.htm

Business

`Remove connectivity hurdles'

Staff Reporter

BSNL and private operators should form a forum to discuss various issues "The Government has given enough concessions to the private players and they should now leave Delhi and work in other places."

A FARMER'S PRIDE: A farmer from Haryana and the first one to buy the Motorola C 138 showing the phone after the Union Minister of Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran, launched the low cost handset by Motorola at the Cellular Summit 2005 in New Delhi on Tuesday. — Photo: S. Subramanium

NEW DELHI: Exhorting all mobile operators to prepare a comprehensive roadmap to achieve the target of 250 million mobile connections by 2007 from the current 50 million, the Union Communications and Information Technology Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, on Tuesday asked all private cellular operators to reduce their `very high' roaming charges. He also rejected the operators' plea of sharing the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited's infrastructure and asked them to build their base in small towns and villages to help boost mobile penetration.

Delivering the keynote address at the Cellular Summit 2005, organised by the Cellular Operators Association of India, Mr. Maran said for BSNL subscribers there was no roaming charges. However, these charges in the case of private operators were very high and this should be brought down. "Consider removing artificial barriers in mobile-to-mobile connectivity to reduce roaming charges," he said.

Rejecting the cellular operators' demand for sharing of the BSNL network and infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, the Minister said the government operator took initiative in areas where its private counterparts failed to venture. Now when the BSNL has turned into a good business opportunity, it needs to capitalise on it. "The Government has given enough concessions to the private players and they should now leave Delhi and work in other places to consolidate their position and build infrastructure. Their all other concerns would be taken care of," he said.

The Government was willing to make private players party to share the cost of burden by way of financial support from the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund, Mr. Maran said and added that the Government on its part would do everything to remove all the hurdles coming in the way of growth of telecommunication.

The BSNL and private operators should form a forum to discuss various issues such as that of interconnectivity, high licence fee and taxes, and the Government would take pro-active action on them.

Low cost handset

At the Summit, the Telecommunication and IT Minister launched low-price cellular handset from Motorola starting from Rs. 1,700 and also witnessed demonstration of Third Generation (3G) mobile services from the Swedish telecom equipment vendor, Ericsson. He hoped that both the developments would prove crucial for penetration and growth of mobile telephony in the country.