One in three Indians have telephone connection: Govt

New Delhi, Feb 12 (PTI) Every third Indian today owns a phone connection, thanks to a number of steps taken by the government to foster affordable telecom services.

"Today, there is a phone connection for every three
persons and the target is to provide 50 crore connections by
2010," Indian President Pratibha Patil said in her address to
the joint sitting of Parliament.

Government has issued 120 new telecom licences in January
last year and once they start operations the telecom density,
which stands at 33 per cent now, is expected to grow
significantly.

Besides increased coverage, the entry of new players is
likely to bring mobile tariffs further down. Communication and
IT Minister A Raja had said that local call tariffs can come
down by 50 per cent to 25 paise a minute while domestic long
distance (STD) charges can fall to 50 paise.

"My government has taken a number of steps to ensure that
reach of affordable telecom services is greatly enhanced," the
President said.

The government has also amended the Indian Telegraph Act
to take the mobile services in the rural India, which has been
left uncovered largely due to restricted returns on the
investments.

"Through amendments to the law initiated by my government
faster expansion of mobile services in rural areas has been
made possible through use of Universal Service Obligation
(USO) Fund for such services," Patil said.

The USO fund, hitherto, was available only for the basic
service providers as mobile services was always considered a
premium service and this was resulting in poor rural coverage
of telecom services.

With the USO fund, a subsidy for setting up
infrastructure in unprofitable rural areas, most of the mobile
operators have started expanding services to such areas.

The President also said that the Broadband policy
launched in 2004 has seen the number of broadband connections
grow from a very low level to over 53 lakh. PTI SKB
PMR