NEW DELHI: Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran today unveiled a 10-point program, Vision 2010, for the telecom sector.

Addressing the CEOs roundtable at India Telecom 2006 in Delhi, Maran said that the focus of the 10-point program would be on improving connectivity.

“The aim is to have 250 million telephone connections by 2007 and by 2010 we aim to have 500 million mobiles. With regard to the geographical coverage, while there would be 85 per cent mobile coverage of the country by 2007, by 2010 90 per cent coverage will be achieved, he said while talking about Network expansion.

“Connecting the unconnected parts of the country is the next step of the 10-point programme,” he said adding that India would have 50 million rural connections by 2007 and 80 million by 2010.

“We will also work towards reducing the urban-rural digital divide from present 25:1 to 5:1 by 2010. Mobile handsets costing Rs 1,000 would be made available within one year to spur this initiative. It is also important to focus on localisation and development of local content to help bridge the digital divide in development of tools and fonts in various languages in all major Indian languages by 2007,” he said further.

The minister further said: “Maximising broadband coverage in the country is a challenge for the telecom industry.” All the players should work towards providing Broadband with minimum speed of up to 2 Mbps.”

Announcing that 2007 would be the year of Broadband in India, taking the connections to nine million, Maran said that all secondary and higher secondary schools, public health institutions and Panchayats would have broadband connections by 2008.

On infrastructure sharing, Maran said: “The decision of providing support from USO Fund for mobile telephony as well as Broadband services is going to open up the vast untapped market in rural areas of the country with about 8000 towers by 2007 and 10,000 more by 2010. He hoped Increase sharing in urban areas from present 25 per cent to 40 per cent by 2007 and 70 per cent by 2010.”

The minister said that 3G policy would be announced in 2007 and informed that India shall take a lead role in introducing WiMAX technology.

The sixth point of the charter is about the Introduction and spread of IPTV and Mobile TV. The aim was to see IPTV in 70 towns by 2007 and 600 towns by 2010 and Mobile TV in top 20 cities/towns in 2007.

Another focus area is to make India a hub for telecom manufacturing. Maran added: “We expect fresh commitment of about $2 billion in the next one year or so in telecom manufacturing itself. The growth targets we are envisaging by 2010 will result in an investment of about $20 billion.”

He hoped that production would be double in 2007 and quadruple in 2010.  Another target is to achieving exports of 6 times from present level of $0.5 billion in 2010.

With regard to R&D, the minister emphasised the pre-eminence of India as a technology solution provider. “The aim is to have affordable technology for masses and a comprehensive security infrastructure for telecom network. Tested infrastructure for enabling interoperability in Next Generation Network and doubling the telecom equipment R&D by 2010 from present level of 10 per cent.”

Facilitating the availability of adequate international bandwidth at competitive prices to drive ITES sector at faster growth is another aspect of vision 2010. 

The last point of the charter focused on promoting fair and just competition with consumer focus and promoting collaboration in public-private partnership mode. While concluding he said that the commitment and support of all stakeholders is required to realise this vision of a Connected India.

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