Maran unveils Telecom Vision 2010

The government on Thursday unveiled its vision for the telecom sector up to 2010, listing plans to initially take total telephone connections to 250 million and cellular coverage to 85 per cent of the country's geographical area by next year.

Speaking at the India Telecom Summit in New Delhi, Union IT and Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran said the government also plans to increase the number of mobile connections to 500 million by 2010.

He said as much as 85 per cent of the geographical area would be connected through mobile by 2007 and the connectivity would be further enhanced to cover 90 per cent of geographical area by 2010.

As per the Vision 2010, rural connectivity would be enhanced to touch 50 million mark by 2007 and 80 million by 2010.

Maran said the government has decided to mark 2007 as the year of broadband year with a target for broadband connectivity set at 9 million. He said the much awaited 3G policy would announced in 2007.

India would see an FDI inflow of $2 billion in manufacturing in the next year and exports six times from the present level of 0.5 billion in 2010.

IPTV would reach 70 towns by 2007 and 600 towns by 2010. The vision paper also envisages making mobile handsets available at Rs 1,000 within a year.