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Govt. to discuss telecom revenue sharing next week

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CIOL Bureau
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KOLKATA: The communications ministry will hold talks with fixed-line telecoms

firms by next week to sort out the issue of revenue sharing between private and

state-owned service providers, a govt. official said on Sunday.

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India threw open basic phone services to unlimited competition in January

this year under its liberalization program. Before that, only one private firm

had been allowed to compete with one state-owned firm in each telecoms circle.

Industry experts say the government's target to raise tele-density to seven

fixed lines per 100 inhabitants by 2005, from the current 3.7, would not be met

unless authorities worked out a proper revenue sharing arrangement between

private operators and state-run giants BSNL and MTNL.

"We will hold a meeting on the revenue-sharing arrangement between the

operators later this week or next week," Shyamal Ghosh, central govt.

telecommunications secretary, told reporters on the sidelines of a telecom

conference in Calcutta. MTNL provides basic phone services in New Delhi and

Mumbai, while BSNL covers the rest of the country.

"The government should focus immediate attention on the crucial issue

(of revenue-sharing)," said Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of private

telecom group Bharti Enterprises. Global research group Gartner forecast in

August that phone revenues in India would increase to $18.9 billion by 2005 from

$6.7 billion in 2000.

(C) Reuters Limited.

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