Telecom ministry targets Rs 650,000-crore investment!

At a time when concerns are being raised over possible flight of investors from the telecom space due to the 2G scam and its fallout, the department of telecommunication has projected an investment of a whopping Rs 6,50,000 crore (Rs 6,500 billion) in the sector in the next five years.

According to a background note prepared for the Economic Editors conference, the Telecom Ministry has made a provision of adding 1,200 million new telephone connections by 2017.

The ministry, which is in the process of finalising the National Telecom Policy 2011, has already announced broad contours including doing away with the national roaming charges and introducing One-Nation, One-Licence.

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The main focus during the next Five-Year Plan (2012-2017) would be to propel broadband growth in the rural areas.

To ensure achievement of growth targets particularly in the broadband and mobile telephony, the department of telecommunication would make about 320 Mhz of additional spectrum available.

The DoT has set a target of 175 million broadband connections by 2017 and also to provide fibre connectivity to 2,50,000 village Panchayats.

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The draft National Telecom Policy 2011, unveiled by Minister of Communications and IT Kapil Sibal, has proposed providing 'Right to Broadband' for every citizen.

The policy has also called for providing 'Broadband on Demand' services, which would enable affordable, across-the-country, round-the-clock and high-speed Internet connectivity to the users, by 2015.

The Telecom Commission, the decision making arm of the DoT, has already cleared the Rs 20,000-crore (Rs 200-billion) project to provide broadband connectivity to all villages in the next three years.