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1.1 Importance of
Telecommunications
The Government of India (Government) recognizes that provision of
world class telecommunications infrastructure and information is the
key to rapid economic and social development of the country. It is
critical not only for the development of the Information Technology
industry, but also has widespread ramifications on the entire
economy of the country. It is also anticipated that going forward, a
major part of the GDP of the country would be contributed by this
sector. Accordingly, it is of vital importance to the country that
there be a comprehensive and forward looking telecommunications
policy which creates an enabling framework for development of this
industry.
1.2 NTP 1994 - objectives and achievements
In 1994, the Government announced the National Telecom Policy which
defined certain important objectives, including availability of
telephone on demand, provision of world class services at reasonable
prices, ensuring India’s emergence as major manufacturing / export
base of telecom equipment and universal availability of basic
telecom services to all villages. It also announced a series of
specific targets to be achieved by 1997. As against the NTP 1994
target of provision of 1 PCO per 500 urban population and coverage
of all 6 lac villages, DoT has achieved an urban PCO penetration of
1 PCO per 522 and has been able to provide telephone coverage to
only 3.1 lac villages. As regards provision of total telephone lines
in the country, DoT has provided 8.73 million telephone lines
against the eighth plan target of 7.5 million lines.
NTP 1994 also recognized that the required resources for achieving
these targets would not be available only out of Government sources
and concluded that private investment and involvement of the private
sector was required to bridge the resource gap. The Government
invited private sector participation in a phased manner from the
early nineties, initially for value added services such as Paging
Services and Cellular Mobile Telephone Services (CMTS) and
thereafter for Fixed Telephone Services (FTS). After a competitive
bidding process, licenses were awarded to 8 CMTS operators in the
four metros, 14 CMTS operators in 18 state circles, 6 BTS operators
in 6 state circles and to paging operators in 27 cities and 18 state
circles. VSAT services were liberalised for providing data services
to closed user groups. Licences were issued to 14 operators in the
private sector out of which only nine licencees are operational. The
Government has recently announced the policy for Internet Service
Provision (ISP) by private operators and has commenced licensing of
the same. The Government has also announced opening up of Global
Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite (GMPCS) and has issued
one provisional license. Issue of licenses to other prospective
GMPCS operators is under consideration.
The Government recognises that the result of the privatisation has
so far not been entirely satisfactory. While there has been a rapid
rollout of cellular mobile networks in the metros and states with
currently over 1 million subscribers, most of the projects today are
facing problems. The main reason, according to the cellular and
basic operators, has been the fact that the actual revenues realised
by these projects have been far short of the projections and the
operators are unable to arrange financing for their projects and
therefore complete their projects. Basic telecom services by private
operators have only just commenced in a limited way in two of the
six circles where licenses were awarded. As a result, some of the
targets as envisaged in the objectives of the NTP 1994 have remained
unfulfilled. The private sector entry has been slower than what was
envisaged in the NTP 1994.
The government views the above developments with concern as it would
adversely affect the further development of the sector and
recognises the need to take a fresh look at the policy framework for
this sector.
1.3 Need for a new telecom policy
In addition to some of the objectives of NTP 1994 not being
fulfilled, there have also been far reaching developments in the
recent past in the telecom, IT, consumer electronics and media
industries world-wide. Convergence of both markets and technologies
is a reality that is forcing realignment of the industry. At one
level, telephone and broadcasting industries are entering each
other’s markets, while at another level, technology is blurring the
difference between different conduit systems such as wireline and
wireless. As in the case of most countries, separate licences have
been issued in our country for basic, cellular, ISP, satellite and
cable TV operators each with separate industry structure, terms of
entry and varying requirement to create infrastructure. However this
convergence now allows operators to use their facilities to deliver
some services reserved for other operators, necessitating a relook
into the existing policy framework. The new telecom policy framework
is also required to facilitate India’s vision of becoming an IT
superpower and develop a world class telecom infrastructure in the
country.
2.0 Objectives and targets of the New Telecom Policy 1999
The objectives of the NTP
1999 are as under:
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Access to
telecommunications is of utmost importance for achievement of the
country's social and economic goals. Availability of affordable
and effective communications for the citizens is at the core of
the vision and goal of the telecom policy.
-
Strive to provide a
balance between the provision of universal service to all
uncovered areas, including the rural areas, and the provision of
high-level services capable of meeting the needs of the country’s
economy;
-
Encourage development
of telecommunication facilities in remote, hilly and tribal areas
of the country;
-
Create a modern and
efficient telecommunications infrastructure taking into account
the convergence of IT, media, telecom and consumer electronics and
thereby propel India into becoming an IT superpower;
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Convert PCO’s,
wherever justified, into Public Teleinfo centres having multimedia
capability like ISDN services, remote database access, government
and community information systems etc.
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Transform in a time
bound manner, the telecommunications sector to a greater
competitive environment in both urban and rural areas providing
equal opportunities and level playing field for all players;
-
Strengthen research
and development efforts in the country and provide an impetus to
build world-class manufacturing capabilities
-
Achieve efficiency and
transparency in spectrum management
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Protect the defence &
security interests of the country
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Enable Indian Telecom
Companies to become truly global players.
In line with the above
objectives, the specific targets that the NTP 1999 seeks to achieve
would be:
-
Make available
telephone on demand by the year 2002 and sustain it thereafter so
as to achieve a teledensity of 7 by the year 2005 and 15 by the
year 2010
-
Encourage development
of telecom in rural areas making it more affordable by suitable
tariff structure and making rural communication mandatory for all
fixed service providers
-
Increase rural
teledensity from the current level of 0.4 to 4 by the year 2010
and provide reliable transmission media in all rural areas
-
Achieve telecom
coverage of all villages in the country and provide reliable media
to all exchanges by the year 2002
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Provide Internet
access to all district head quarters by the year 2000
-
Provide high speed
data and multimedia capability using technologies including ISDN
to all towns with a population greater than 2 lac by the year 2002
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