Government to delicense bandwidth between 2.2 and 2.5 GHz

PUNE: Pramod Mahajan, Union minister for Communication and Information

Technology has announced that the government has decided to delicense the

bandwidth between 2.2 and 2.5 GHz. For major IT companies that use bandwidth for

high data transfers, the announcement made by the minister comes as a major shot

in the arm.






According to him, this would enable major IT companies and educational
institutions to establish wireless local area networks and also enable several

computer networks to access the Internet through a single modem.






Mahajan was speaking at the inauguration of the five-acre Symbiosis campus at
Hinjewadi. Referring to the Nasscom-Mckinsey report that promises a major

upswing in India’s fortunes in the coming years, Mahajan pointed out that

while IT was 2 per cent of the GDP, it would grow to 7 per cent by 2008.






The Nasscom report states that the ‘industry continues to be on track to
achieve the goals’, but the domestic market will grow slower than earlier

projections. Moreover, the mix of services will be slightly different from the

earlier projections, he maintained.






Mahajan said that software exports would account for $ 50 billion and offer
direct employment to atleast 4 million people and called for quality training to

tackle this issue. "If we do not produce quality, we will lose our

competitive edge," he cautioned.



Mahajan also pointed out that the IT revolution would not succeed without
adequate power and connectivity.