Maran's plan to raise rural teledensity

In order to increase teledensity, particularly in the rural areas, the telecom ministry is planning to put in place common facility, like towers, which could be shared by private players, Union Minister for Telecommunications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran said on Wednesday.

The ministry is keen to increase rural teledensity, which, at present, is hardly 100:2 (people:telephone) compared to 100:28 in urban areas, Maran said in Coimbatore.

Once the common facility was set up, private players could share them to increase rural penetration, Maran said. However, Maran ruled out allowing private players to use BSNL facilities any more.

The government has already released 10 crore (100 million) telephone connections, both basic and mobile in one year. The ministry would release 15 crore (150 million) more connections within three years across the country, he said.

He would visit the US on June 5 to invite Intel to set up their unit at Chennai, since China and Vietnam were vying to attract Intel, Maran said, adding he would also hold discussions with AMD and Cgate to start their units in India.

The country can expect $800 to 850 million investment in telecom and telecom related industries by this fiscal.

He said Alcatel would open a global research centre, based on Y-Max technology, in Chennai in July in collaboration with C-Dot.

As a first step to realising the dream of 'One India', the ministry had removed artificial barriers, by introducing 'No More STD,' since last Tuesday in five states. This policy initiative would be implemented in a phased manner in other states, Maran said.

When asked about the financial implications due to the initiative, he said there was no concern about the loss of revenue, since people would speak more, particularly villagers, resulting in revenue increase.

Blaming the previous government for its failure to tap investment potential in the telecom sector, the Minister said during the last one year, Ericsson has started a unit in Jaipur, LG in Pune, Elcotel in Bangalore in collaboration with ITI, besides Nokia in Chennai, and a broadband switch unit would also come up at Naini shortly.

Maran said 40 lakh GSM lines would be released by July in Tamil Nadu and the GSM lines would be given on demand from September in the State.

When asked about IT sector, he said after congestion and lack of infrastructure in Bangalore, more IT companies were moving towards Chennai.

On promoting Coimbatore, Maran said with a large number of engineering colleges and good English proficiency, Coimbatore would soon become the next preferred destination for IT majors.

The IT sector has grown well without government intervention, Maran said and asked the local entrepreneurs to come forward to invest in the sector.