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India: Trai chairman in favour of rural subsidies Print E-mail
Tuesday, 30 August 2005
Pradip Baijal, chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), suggested that the government subsidise the costs of rural telecommunications infrastructure to make rural market entry more attractive.

Rural teledensity continues to lag because rural telephony still depends on public sector players, Baijal said, adding that for India’s telecommunications sector to advance, coverage of the rural market is essential. Baijal suggested that the government create a highly competitive public-private presence in rural areas by reducing the cost of infrastructure.

To maintain the telecom sector’s current growth rate, rural expansion is necessary he said, adding that network expansion plans are under way. Current mobile coverage is just 20% of the country’s geographic area.

Baijal said that significant increases in rural teledensity are only possible using next generation technology with open-source architecture to enable access to a variety of services including voice telephony. Private operators are not in favour of this now.

“We have been lobbying for a unified license system to cover all the services including cable television connection and internet. But the Centre is yet to clear the proposal due to pressures from corporates,” he said.

Source: Business Standard - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News