Govt to work for subscriber welfare and telecom growth: Prasad

Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that the government is scrutinizing spectrum sharing, trading, allocation, etc, for the betterment of the subscribers.

"I can say one thing for sure, the policy will be centered on subscriber welfare and growth of the telecom sector," Prasad said in his first formal news briefing on Tuesday since taking over as the telecom minister three weeks ago.

"There will be a transparent arrangement for spectrum allocation", he added.

Besides, he said that the government is planning to connect 2,50,000 gram panchayats through the optic fiber network by next year. Out of which, 50,000 gram panchayats it is targeting this fiscal. 

The Rs21,000-crore national optic fibre network (NOFN) project didn’t fructify the way it was projected.  "Our mission is to begin delivery of all government services as soon as possible through this mechanism," he said.

The telecom sector, which was hit by the 2G scam under the UPA regime, is awaiting clarifications on certain policies. The industry looks forward to transparent policies in mergers and acquisitions, spectrum sharing and trading, etc.

In its recent allocations of spectrum, the government has used the auction process. It needs to give clarity on spectrum sharing by different operators, among other things.

Prasad assured that a monitoring procedure to improve the quality of services will be set up for reviving struggling state-run telcos Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam.

Faced with increasing competitions from private telcos, both of them are recording losses for years now, even the government’s bailout packages have not helped them to get rid of their woes.

He also spoke about government's commitment in connecting to the remote Northeast regions of India.

During its first meet under the new government, the telecom commission last week approved a proposal for a network of 8,000 towers to improve the connectivity in the North East region and the government will spend Rs 5,000 crore on this.

Broadband penetration is another key focus area of the new government. "Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee's govt was known for national highways and Mr (Narendra) Modi's govt will be known for broadband highways," Prasad said.