"Cultivate telecom culture"--Prithipal Singh

There is a need to develop the rural market and initiate the masses into
benefits that could be derived from the telecommunication revolution. The success of the FMCG market has demonstrated that it is not just vanilla
telecom services but also value-added services that could tap the huge rural
base, provided it is packaged correctly.

The challenge today for telecom operators is not just to expand the subscriber base but also how to increase the volume of
usage. In other words, how to increase the ARPU yield. With tariffs hitting rock bottom and
increasing capex, telcos have become seriously worried about increasing their
bottomlines.

Prithipal Singh CMD of BSNL pointed out to the immense success of BSNL's
cellular services, which has garnered over a million subscribers within a short span of time. This clearly demonstrated the purchasing power of the
rural population. It also reflected a paradigm change in the definition of
basic telephony service from a fixed phone to a mobile phone.

Continuing on similar vein, Shyamol Ghosh, Administrator of the USO Fund
said that it is important to ensure that the masses have access to telecommunication facilities. In fact, TRAI has recommended that villages
with a population of over 2,000 should have two Village Public Telephones
(VPTs). After the basic voice connectivity is established, these VPTS would
be upgraded to provide data access facilities, so that the rural population
also gets integrated into the digital lifestyle sweeping across the globe.

Unfortunately, the rural areas are not priority service areas for service
providers and therefore the USO Fund has been created to facilitate the roll
out of VPTS in remote locations. Ghosh said that only those VPTs where the
net cost is negative would be eligible to bid for the fund. The bidding for
the USO Fund is expected to begin next week. Ghosh also revealed that the VPTs in Kerala would not be eligible for bidding since they are net cost
positive.

Other issues, which were debated in the seminar organized by leading communication magazine Voice&Data for service
providers, included technical compatibility, regulatory challenges, and the possibility of industry
consolidation. Some pertinent issues raised were the need to ensure standardization of equipment for all service providers so that there is easy
and seamless migration between networks; the emergence of network service providers as telcos step away from infrastructure building and
maintenance and the increasing role of third party maintenance and support of network.

Telcos would be seen to focus only on customer acquisition, retention and support activities. There is a need to develop the
rural market and initiate the masses into the benefits that could be derived from the
telecommunication revolution. The success of the FMCG market has demonstrated that it is not just vanilla telecom services but also
value-added services that the rural people could be tapped provided it is packaged correctly.

The challenge today for telecom operators is not just to expand the subscriber base but also how to increase the volume of
usage. In other words how to increase the ARPU yield. With tariffs hitting rock bottom and
increasing capex, telcos have become seriously worried about increasing their
bottomlines.

Prithipal Singh CMD of BSNL pointed out to the immense success of BSNL's cellular services, which has garnered over a
million subscribers within a short span of time. This clearly demonstrated the purchasing power of the
rural population. It also reflected a paradigm change in the definition of basic telephony service from a fixed phone to a mobile phone.

Continuing on similar vein, Shyamal Ghosh, Administrator of the USO Fund said that is important to ensure that the masses
have access to telecommunication facilities. In fact TRAI has recommended that villages
over 2000 population should have two VPTs (Village Public Telephones). After the basic voice connectivity is established, these VPTS would be upgraded to
provide data access facilities so that the rural population also gets integrated into the digital lifestyle sweeping across the globe.

Unfortunately the rural areas are not priority service areas for service providers and therefore the USO Fund has been created
to facilitate the roll out of VPTS in remote locations. Ghosh said that only those VPTs where the
net cost is negative would be eligible to bid for the fund. The bidding for the USO Fund is expected to begin next week. Ghosh also revealed the VPTs in
Kerala would not be eligible for bidding since they are net cost positive.

Other issues, which were debated in the seminar, organized for service providers by leading communication magazine Voice
& Data included technical compatibility, regulatory challenges, and the possibility of industry
consolidation. Some pertinent issues raised were the need to ensure standardization of equipment for all service providers so that there is easy
and seamless migration between networks; the emergence of network service providers as telcos step away from infrastructure building and
maintenance and the increasing role of third party maintenance and support of network.

Telcos would be seen to focus only on customer acquisition, retention and support activities.

(CNS)