Govt considers releasing additional spectrum

NEW DELHI: The government has taken notice of the problems faced by the telecom sector and is working on releasing additional spectrum for commercial use.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said that the government is working on releasing additional spectrum for commercial use by telecom operators to facilitate the expansion of the sector.

"We are working steadily towards the issue of releasing spectrum from government use for the use of commercial telecom operators so that the growth of the dynamic sector is not constrained by the shortage of this vital resource," he said.

Expressing concern over the wide gap between rural and urban tele-density, he said while the country has achieved impressive growth overall, the penetration in rural areas is still quite low with a tele-density of less than two per thousand.

"Most of the growth in the past has been from urban areas. If we have to double the subscriber base in the next two years it would be a far more difficult exercise than in the past, if we have to depend largely on urban market for fuelling this growth," he said.

The prime minister said that the sector needs to look at approaches, which would enhance the teledensity in rural areas to have 250 million subscribers by the end of next year.

Singh also stressed on the need for a forward-looking approach for "convergence" (offering telecom and broadcast services on a single platform). He said that no policy could be effective if it is not in step with market and technological realities.

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