Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured all
stakeholders in the telecom industry that his government will address their
concerns and support the growth of the with forward-looking policies.

 

“I am aware of some concerns of the telecom industry
regarding government policies in the telecom
sector,” the Prime Minister said, inaugurating the India
Telecom Summit, organized by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and
FICCI.

 

His comments come against the backdrop of his meeting
last week with the heads of five top private sector telecom companies in India,
who expressed concern over lack of available spectrum and the ban on sharing
these precious airwaves among them, according to a report in Economic Times.

 

Those from the industry at the meeting were Bharti Airtel
chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani, Aditya
Vikram Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, Vodafone Group chief
executive Vittoria Collao and Tata Sons director Ishaat Hussain.

 

“I would like to take this opportunity to assure all
of you that our government will continue to formulate forward-looking policies
that will encourage further growth of the telecom sector,” Manmohan Singh
said.

 

According to the Prime Minister, India was today the
fastest growing telecom market in the world, adding 18 million new connections
to the network every month. In the process, wireless tele-density had grown
from 2 percent in 2000 to 72.1 percent now.

 

He said the new draft telecom policy aimed at 175 million
broadband connections by 2017 and 600 million by 2020 at a minimum download
speed of 2 megabits per second, from 12.8 million at present. All village
blocks will also have broadband access by 2014.

 

By Telecomlead.com Team
[email protected]