Trai chief for subsidising rural telecom infrastructure

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman Pradip Baijal has suggested to the Government of India to subsidise the cost of rural telecom infrastructure so that the entry for corporates becomes more attractive.

Teledensity in rural areas continues to be at the bottom level because rural telephony is still dependent on public sector players, he said, adding that the next leap in telecom revolution is possible only with the coverage of huge untapped rural market.

Addressing a session on 'Growth Strategies for the Telecom Sector' at the second-day convention of the Association of Indian Management Schools here on Monday, Baijal suggested to the government to create a highly competitive public-private presence in rural areas by reducing the cost of infrastructure.

To maintain the present growth rate in the telecom sector, we have to go to rural areas, he said, adding that the huge network expansion plans are under way as the present mobile coverage is just 20 per cent of the total area as compared to 90 per cent coverage in other countries.

While strongly recommending for the replication of urban telecom success story in rural areas, even by offering cost reduction in the creation of telecom infrastructure, Baijal said that the desired level of teledensity in rural areas was possible only with the next generation technology with open-ended architecture to enable access to a variety of services including voice telephony. Private operators are not in favour of this at the moment.

"We have been lobbying for a unified licence system to cover all the services including cable television connection and internet. But the Centre is yet to clear the proposal due to pressures from corporates," he said.

According to him, rural population will welcome cable television connection before going for a telephone connection. Though a strong lobby is trying to stop information technology from entering the telecom sector, no one can stop it for long, he said.