At a time when concerns are being raised over possible flight of investors from the telecom space due to the 2G scam and its fallout, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has projected an investment of a whopping Rs 6,50,000 crore in the sector in the next five years.
According to a background note prepared for the Economic Editors conference, the Telecom Ministry has made a provision of adding 1,200 million new telephone connections by 2017.
The ministry, which is in the process of finalising the National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2011, has already announced broad contours including doing away with the national roaming charges and introducing One-Nation, One-Licence.
The main focus during the next Five-Year Plan (2012-2017) would be to propel broadband growth in the rural areas.
To ensure achievement of growth targets particularly in the broadband and mobile telephony, the DoT would make about 320 MHz of additional spectrum available.
The DoT has set a target of 175 million broadband connections by 2017 and also to provide fibre connectivity to 2.50 lakh village Panchayats.