India Gets 3G Mobile Services

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh today launched the country's first third generation (3G) mobile services in New Delhi that will provide high speed transfer of voice, data and video. He also inaugurated India Telecom 2008, India's leading international conference and exhibition for the entire telecom system. The two day event is jointly organized by Department of Telecommunications and FICCI. The Prime Minister released a report prepared by Capgemini, the knowledge partner for this year's Telecom summit on the Indian telecom market.

The Minister for Communications and IT, Thiru A. Raja made a video call to Dr. Singh using a 3G enabled handset signaling the debut of the high quality service in India. The video streaming applications like 'live TV' was also demonstrated at the inauguration. The public sector MTNL is rolling out the 3G service in the capital making use of the necessary Spectrum allocated to it by DOT. The services will be available early next year in Mumbai and Chennai.

Speaking on the occasion, Thiru A Raja announced that within one year, all mobile phone subscribers in the country can switch from one operator to another operator providing better services while retaining their numbers. He informed that the DOT has accepted the Mobile Number Portability recommendations, which were pending since 2006. MNP is likely to be implemented in the Metros and category "A" circles by middle of 2009 and in the entire country by the end of 2009. It will promote competition among the operators to provide better quality with more value added services at lower tariff.

Mr. Raja informed that after migrating to revenue sharing regime, the telecom sector has contributed about Rs 50,000 crores through license fee, entry fee and spectrum charges till the end of last financial year. During this financial year alone, it is expected that about Rs 16,000 crores will be collected from the license fee and spectrum charges.

On the issue of new licenses, the Minister explained that the policy of "NO Cap" on number of service providers in a service area has been adopted, as per the recommendations of TRAI. New licenses have been granted under this policy which will bring enhanced competition, faster growth, lower tariffs, bridging the digital divide between rural and urban areas. He pointed out that existing players have already reduced their tariffs and number of additional subscribers per month has increased.

On further reduction of tariff, Mr. Raja said, TRAI has been requested to re-look into the existing Mobile Termination Charges, as the cost per line has substantially reduced due to technological advancement and increase in traffic.

Mr. Raja informed that DOT has been able to locate sufficient unutilsed 2G spectrum and allot additional spectrum to all the existing operators as well as to new licenses in most of the circles. He said, the coordination of spectrum in other circles is continuing and it is hoped that the requirement of all the operators, old and new, will be met soon.

The Minister of State for Communications and IT, Mr. Jyotiraditya M. Scindia said that the government is aiming at increasing rural penetration while bringing in value added services like the 3G. He said, more attention will be given to hardware manufacturing.

In his address, Mr. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, President, FIICI, highlighted the issues of rural telephony and affordability and requested the government for action on Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) for the sake of low cost connectivity.

Source : Press Information Bureau

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