NEW DELHI: India expects to launch 3G mobile telephone services in the second
half of 2007, Communications and IT minister Dayanidhi Maran said.
India will no more remain isolated from the 3G wave, keeping in tune with
Korea and Japan in the Asia-Pacific Region having already launched the 3G
services, which is sweeping the rest of the world, Maran said while speaking at
a seminar "3G India: Redefining Mobility."
Maran said that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has also been
deliberating on the 3G spectrum issues for quite sometime. Considering the
nature of the issue and its impact on India's long term growth, TRAI has been
requested to study the same in depth and give their recommendations for DoT's
consideration.
Sharing his views on some of the parameters which formulation of 3G spectrum
policy would need to incorporate, the minister said that the allocation of
spectrum requirements of 2G/2.5G has been made historically amongst various
users, both Government and the telecom service providers. These have served well
to witness a surge in expansion of telecom network as well as capacities.
The DoT had recently allowed four major carriers, including Bharti Airtel
Ltd., to conduct indoor trials of mobile services based on the 3G spectrum so
they could test equipment.
The telecoms minister further said that keeping in view the Indian
conditions, the telecom services in India would continue to remain voice-centric
for bulk growth. Technologically, one may conceivably view 3G as an overlay on
the 2G network. However, 3G networks are not mere upgrades of 2G networks;
rather, entirely new networks need to be built and frequencies need to be
assigned to mobile operators.
Conceptually, however, the distinction needs to be made that for India at
least, 3G cannot be perceived as an automatic extension of 2G / 2.5G and would
need to be viewed as kind of stand-alone service for specialized needs.
The spectrum requirement for 3G would, therefore, have to operate on its own
merit in a scarce and competitive environment, he added.
Recognising the need that much more needs to be done for rural India, Maran
said, “One of the gaps in India's mobile success story has been the relative
absence of the participation of rural India, which has till date remained
somewhat isolated from the many benefits of mobile services owing to inadequate
coverage.”
For this, DoT has plans to provide one phone per three rural households by
December, 2007 (about 50 million rural connections) and one phone per two rural
households by 2010 (about 80 million rural connections).
“We will be providing mobile access to all villages with population more
than 5,000 by December, 2006 and more than 1,000 by December, 2007,” Maran
said.
Like wise DoT is having a time bound plan for rollout of 2G services into
rural India with coverage of all villages with population of more than 5000 by
end of 2006 and coverage of all villages with more than 1000 population by end
of year 2007.
The DoT would ensure that all new technologies are introduced in rural areas
also. This includes introduction of broadband services in rural areas. It is
further planned to provide broadband coverage for all Gram panchayats, all
secondary and higher secondary schools and all public health care centers by the
end of year 2007.
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