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Broadband Connectivity Essential to Steer India to Next Phase of Telecom Growth
Saturday, 24 November, 2007
Develop Villages as Knowledge Centres : Planning CommisionNew Delhi, Delhi, India, Thursday, November 22, 2007 -- (Business Wire
India) -- The next phase of telecom growth will be driven by broadband
paradigm, said Mr. R R Shah, Member Secretary, Planning Commission at
a conference on 'Connecting the Next 500 Million: Telecom Roadmap for
the 11th Five Year Plan 2007 - 12', organised by the Confederation of
Indian Industry (CII), here on Thursday. Majority of the next 500 million customers in telecom will be in the
rural areas, through rural connectivity. The approach to enable this
will require the government to review the strategy pursued so far, and
bring substantial change in policy framework followed, to enable the
growth of the Telecom industry during the next Plan period, said Mr.
Shah. Government is planning to develop villages as knowledge centers,
he said. There is a whole set of need at the rural level which has to be
converted into opportunity in which Information and Communication
technologies will have a major role, he said. Local content has to be
encouraged to implement e-governance applications and connect rural
India for the overall inclusive growth, he added. There will be substantial outlays in the next plan period for
education and health. Rural connectivity, e-governance applications, e
commerce, tele-medicine and e-education which are going to contribute
to substantial growth of telecom industry in the next phase of
inclusive development in the 11th Five Year Plan period up to 2012,
said Mr. Shah. Mr. Sanjeev Aga, Chairman - CII National Committee on Telecom and
Broadband and Managing Director, Idea Cellular Limited said that
telecom industry is facing the challenges of interconnectivity as well
as growth and expansion within the sector. He emphasised on the need
that the government should instill confidence of the telecom industry
by planning standard policies for the sector. Mr. Aga suggested that
telecom policy should be integrated with national planning process
undertaken by the Planning Commision. Next three years will be difficult for the telecom industry as
telecom companies will enter different geographical and socio-economic
regions to foster growth, said Mr. Aga. The cost of passive
infrastructure is enormous and telecom companies should consider the
infrastructural challenges in the rural areas, he added. Mr. D Shivakumar, VP and Managing Director, Nokia India Pvt. Ltd. said
that telecom sector in India has grown because of innovative schemes
offered by Indian operators. Growing economy, consumer spend,
consistency of policy framework, operator's innovation and affordable
handset will enable the telecom sector to reach the target of 500
million connections by 2010, said Mr. Shivakumar. The telecom growth will bring prosperity in rural areas and push the
productivity in all the sectors, said Mr. Shivakumar. Affordability
and availability of infrastructure will be key challenges for telecom
industry to reach the rural customer, he mentioned. Value added
services (VAS) industry is going to reach Rs.77,823 crores in 2012
which would be around 25% of mobile telephony market, informed Mr.
Shivakumar. Vikram Tiwathia, Chief Information Officer, CII said that emphasis on
broadband technology and introduction of NGN technology will maneuver
the telecom sector to next phase of growth. As recommendations for the
growth of telecom industry on behalf of CII, he suggested spectrum
availability, unbundling of copper local loop for enhancing broadband
use, rationalisation of taxes, stable electricity supply and proper
handling of e-waste components be attended to for the next phase of
growth in the 2007-2012 FYP period. The report "Telecom: Catalyzing the New Indian Economy" was released
by Mr. R R Shah at the conference. The report produced by Frost &
Sullivan examines the telecom growth in 11th Plan period.
Specifically, the focus is on identifying challenges of reaching the
650 Million users by 2012, infrastructure and regulatory issues that
need to be addressed. The report is based on valuable inputs from
across academia, policy makers, and business leaders across telecom
and related industries. Presenting the findings, Mr. Anand Rangachary, Managing Director,
Frost & Sullivan said that supportive policy environment, improving
telecom infrastructure and growth in rural telephony are the key
challenges for the telecom industry. He mentioned that Indian telecom industry had contributed over
Rs.1,05,287 to the Indian economy in 2006 and is expected to grow at a
CAGR of 26.8% to reach Rs.3,44,921 crores by 2012. Mr Rangachary added that the Telecom industry is going to provide
direct employment to 2.8 million people whereas 7 million people will
get indirect employment, the report stated. E-agriculture will reduce
procurement costs of farmers by 2.5% which will result in an economic
benefit of Rs.6100 crores, added Mr. Rangachari.
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