REGULATOR WANTS GOVT TO STEP UP PACE ON SPECTRUM ALLOCATION

By Pankaj Mishra, New Delhi
Mint 

 

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, or Trai, has asked the government to allocate radio spectrum for offering 3G, or third-generation wireless services, at the earliest to help increase broadband subscriber base.

There are only about three million such connections, a far cry from almost nine million broadband subscribers by 2007 that the government had estimated.

High-speed broadband access allows users to download data and browse Internet services at about 256kb per second. According to researcher Frost and Sullivan, the Indian market for providing broadband services was estimated to be around Rs 1,009 crore in 2007 and projected to reach Rs 5,123 crore by 2012.

The regulator has asked the government to “expedite (a) decision on Trai’s recommendation regarding mechanism and pricing of spectrum for 3G and broadband wireless access”, in its recommendations on growth of broadband, submitted to Siddhartha Behura, the new secretary at Department of Telecommunications, on Wednesday.

According to Trai, while China adds 3.32 million broadband connections every three months, some 0.08 million broadband connections are added every quarter in India. Trai also asked the government to increase broadband targets for state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, or BSNL, and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, or MTNL.

“BSNL and MTNL should be encouraged to appoint franchises for providing broadband services to supplement their efforts,” Trai said. “There should be total flexibility in developing a commercial model.”

“We have grossly failed on achieving the broadband target,” Kuldeep Goyal, chairman and managing director of BSNL had told Mint in a November interview. “It was planned that out of nine million, public sector should account for 50%, and the remaining from the private sector—both have failed.” BSNL, which currently has around 2.5 million broadband customers, plans to achieve 10 million connections by 2010.