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Manoj Sinha should focus on providing Telecom connectivity to villages
TT Correspondent |  |  18 Jul 2016

On the very first day of taking charge as telecom minister, Manoj Sinha had to face music of heading a ministry that has a long history of being in controversy. The Congress party accused the NDA government of Rs 45,000 crore-scam by not taking any action against telecom operators for under reporting revenues. As I explained in my Column last Monday, it was a naive move and didn’t give any political mileage to it.

However, it became clear that the Communication ministry will always be under scrutiny of political parties. How can Congress forget that it was the 2G scam that led to its downfall?

As telecom minister, now the focus will be on Sinha. In order to improve the performance of the ministry, his immediate focus should be on three areas - Auction, Call drop and BharatNet – but in reverse order.

The main reason why auction should be the least worrisome is that the Communications ministry has got an auction expert bureaucrat J. S. Deepak as its Secretary. As a joint secretary in the Communications ministry in 2010, Deepak was responsible for one of the most successful auctions of 3G and 4G spectrum. He was also roped in for subsequent spectrum auctions. His help was also sought for coal auction.

Next is the problem of call drops. There is no quick fix method for resolving this issue. Basic reason for call drops is – small quantity of spectrum allotted to the Operators, increasing use of data and low investment on infrastructure by the telecom service providers.

This issue will be resolved in due course of time as mergers and acquisitions take place in the industry. Recently, Bharti acquired spectrum of Videocon and Aircel. This will give it enough bandwidth for providing voice and data services seamlessly in many places. Similarly, the proposed merger of RCOM with MTS and Aircel is a move in this direction. New operator Reliance Jio has entered into spectrum sharing deal with RCOM.

The most important and difficult issue is providing Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) connectivity to villages under BharatNet project. This is the backbone of the Digital India project. Without connectivity, no e-governance services can be provided to rural population. The government was supposed to connect 2.5 lakh Village Panchayats under this project. Its targets have been revised a couple of times. However, it is still much behind in its schedule. The status of the project is such that if everything goes well even then the government will not be able to connect one lakh villages by the end of this financial year.

So, the first priority of Sinha should be BharatNet. If successfully implemented, it will help people in rural areas and he will be able to make a mark in the government.

    
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18 Jul 2016(IST)  
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