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NEW DELHI: India expects to launch 3G mobile telephone services in the second half of 2007, Communications and IT minister Dayanidhi Maran said here today.
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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