What are the Government's Expectations From the Operators in India

In an exclusive conversation with Voice&Data, Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DoT), talks about the expectations of Government from the operators in regard to taking broadband to the masses.

She says that this is one area where the operators need to do much more. Indians have largely addressed the issue of access but have not addressed the issue of quality. The quality offered by operators are not good enough for Indians. They have to solve the issue of quality as soon as possible.

The operators say that India has unusually high usage and there is a shortage of spectrum. They also say that India has a shortage of Fibre. Only 20% of towers have been fiberized.

Aruna Sundararajan says that this is their problem and has to be fixed by them. The government cannot interfere and fix it for them. The government can only make sure that enough spectrum is available. We have also allowed them to set towers on top of Government buildings in many areas.  But this one area where I think the TRAI and DoT will not hesitate to crack down on operators if they don’t improve their quality.