|
NEW DELHI (AFP) - India will open up long distance domestic telephone operations and allow Internet service providers to set up their own landing stations, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said.
Vajpayee told the first conference of Information Technology (IT) ministers from all Indian states that long-distance telephone services would be opened to private players by August 15, the anniversary of the day India gained freedom from British rule. "Recognizing the benefits of large-scale competition, the government has decided to fully deregulate national long distance operations with no artificial restriction on the number of licenses to be issued," Vajpayee said.
The prime minister said undersea optical fiber connectivity would also be opened up and said the IT revolution would help the Indian government work more efficiently. "If IT has forced businesses to conduct their operations at Internet speed, we in government cannot afford to continue working in the same old style and at the same old speed," he said.
Indian IT Minister Pramod Mahajan later told reporters the conference, attended by chief ministers of 14 of India's 26 states, also endorsed a 13-point action plan, which will add flavor to the offered bonanza. "The action-plan includes sales tax exemption and the lowering of central levies on optical fibre, hardware and Internet access devices," Mahajan said.
Mahajan said the conference urged India's private and state-run Internet service providers to offer concessions to educational institutes and lower rates for other Internet subscribers.
India's State Planning Commission, which makes suggestions on critical sectors of the country's economy and prepares blueprints to help achieve those goals, had recently urged the government to throw open long distance telephone services through the Internet. "Opening of Internet telephony like the data services may not harm the national interest in any way ... It may lead to optimum utilization of resources and provision of least cost services," the commission said in a document.
Indian state-run firms Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd control international and domestic long distance telephone services respectively. The government has so far not allowed Internet telephone, apparently because the entry of private players could reverse the state-run firms' fortunes.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has already made recommendations for opening up the sector, which are now being examined by the Department of Telecommunications. The panel said opening up of long distance telephone services would be a vital factor in ensuring viable commercial operations for private telecom firms, which have entered the sector in the last five to six years. "The private sector participation (has) failed to take off as desired both in basic as well as value added services, except for cellular services in metro areas," the panel noted.
It said high telecom license fees and a shortfall in revenue targets were the biggest stumbling blocks in the way of private firms. Six private companies have so far secured licenses for providing fixed line telephone services in the country. Out of these, three have started operations. For cellular services, 22 operators were selected by the government for providing services in New Delhi, Bombay, Madras and Calcutta, as well as 18 areas known as 'telecom circles'
|
