In India, telephone
service was first introduced in Kolkata in 1881-82, barely six years after the
invention of telephone. The first automatic telephone exchange was commissioned
at Shimla in 1913-14 with a capacity of 700 lines.
The
telecommunication services have improved significantly with the sector
witnessing a series of reform measures that included, announcement of National
Telecom Policy in 1994 that 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. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the independent
regulator, was established in 1997 and New Telecom Policy was announced in
1999, which further laid stress on providing an enabling framework for the
development of this sector and to facilitate India’s vision of developing a world
class telecom infrastructure in the country. Since then, Indian telecom sector
has come a long way in achieving its dream of providing affordable and
effective communication facilities to its citizens.
The
reform measures coupled with the proactive policies of the Department of
Telecommunications and active participation by private sector have resulted in
an unprecedented growth of the telecom sector. Telecom sector has witnessed
exponential growth, especially in the wireless segment, in the last few years.
Today, with 921.47 million telephone connections at the end of November 2012,
the Indian telecom network is second largest in the world, only after China.
With 890.60 million telephone connections at the end of November 2012, the
Indian wireless telephone network is also second largest in the world.
Tele-density, which shows the number of telephones per 100 population in the
country, was 75.55 % at the end of November 2012.
Telecom
has evolved as a basic infrastructure like electricity, roads, water etc. and
has also emerged as one of the critical components of economic growth required
for overall socio economic development of the country. A study conducted
recently has found that, in India, 10% increase in internet subscribers delivers,
on an average, 1.08% increase in GDP. In the 10 States which had higher
penetration of Internet, the increase in growth was higher at 2.36%, on an
average, for 10% increase in Internet penetration. In the year 2009-10, these
10 States, referred to as ‘relatively developed States’ had Internet
penetration rate of 2.76% compared to the set of 9 ‘Developing’ States having
average Internet penetration rate of only 0.61%. The Study has also found that
a 10% increase in mobile penetration delivers, on an average, 1.5% increase in
GDP.
National Telecom
Policy-2012 (NTP-2012)
The
Government approved National Telecom Policy-2012 (NTP-2012) on 31st May
2012 which addresses the Vision, Strategic direction and the various medium
term and long term issues related to telecom sector. The primary objective
of NTP-2012 is maximizing public good by making available affordable, reliable
and secure telecommunication and broadband services across the entire country.
The main thrust of the Policy is on the multiplier effect and transformational
impact of such services on the overall economy. It recognizes the role of such
services in furthering the national development agenda while enhancing equity
and inclusiveness. Availability of affordable and effective communications for
the citizens is at the core of the vision and goal of the NTP-2012. NTP-2012
also recognizes the predominant role of the private sector in this field and
the consequent policy imperative of ensuring continued viability of service
providers in a competitive environment. Pursuant to NTP-2012, these principles
would guide decisions needed to strike a balance between the interests of
users/ consumers, service providers and government revenue.
The objectives of the NTP-2012, inter-alia,
include the following:
· Provide secure, affordable and high
quality telecommunication services to all citizens.
· Strive to create One Nation - One
License across services and service areas.
· Achieve One Nation - Full Mobile Number
Portability and work towards One Nation - Free Roaming.
· Increase
rural tele-density from the current level of around 39 to 70 by the year 2017
and 100 by the year 2020. .
· To recognize telecom, including broadband
connectivity as a basic necessity like education and health and work towards ‘Right
to Broadband’.
· Provide affordable and reliable broadband-on-demand by the year 2015 and to
achieve 175 million broadband connections by the year 2017 and 600 million by
the year 2020 at minimum 2 Mbps download speed and making available higher
speeds of at least 100 Mbps on demand.
· Provide high speed and high quality broadband
access to all village panchayats through a combination of technologies by the
year 2014 and progressively to all villages and habitations
by 2020.
· Recognize telecom as Infrastructure Sector to
realize true potential of ICT for development
· Address the Right of Way (RoW) issues in setting
up of telecom infrastructure.
· Mandate an ecosystem to ensure setting up of a
common platform for interconnection of various networks for providing
non-exclusive and non-discriminatory access.
· Enhanced and continued adoption of
green policy in telecom and incentivize use of renewable resources for
sustainability
· Achieve substantial transition to new
Internet Protocol (IPv 6) in the country in a phased and time bound manner by
2020 and encourage an ecosystem for provision of a significantly large
bouquet of services on IP platform.
Manufacturing of Telecom
Equipment
The
exponential growth witnessed by the telecom sector in the past decade has led
to the development of the telecom equipment manufacturing and other supporting
industries within the country. With the advent of next-generation technologies
and operators rolling out 3G and broadband wireless access services, the demand
for telecom equipment has increased. In an attempt to capitalize on this
opportunity, the government and policymakers are focusing on developing the
domestic manufacturing industry. Despite significant growth of the telecom
network and the subscriber base over the last decade, the telecom manufacturing
sector has not shown corresponding increase.
The
NTP-2012, inter-alia, has following objectives on promoting Telecom Equipment
Manufacturing:
· Create a corpus to promote indigenous R&D,
IPR creation, entrepreneurship, manufacturing, commercialisation and deployment
of state-of-the-art telecom products and services during the 12th five year
plan period.
· Promote the ecosystem for design, Research and
Development, IPR creation, testing, standardization and manufacturing i.e.
complete value chain for domestic production of telecommunication equipment to
meet Indian telecom sector demand to the extent of 60% and 80% with a minimum
value addition of 45% and 65% by the year 2017 and 2020 respectively.
· Provide preference to domestically manufactured
telecommunication products, in procurement of those telecommunication products
which have security implications for the country and in Government procurement
for its own use, consistent with our World Trade Organization (WTO)
commitments.
National Optical Fiber
Network (NOFN)
The
optical fiber has predominantly reached state capitals, districts and blocks,
at present. Government has approved a project, at a cost of Rs. 20,000
crore, for creating a National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN) to connect all
the 2,50,000 Gram panchayats in the country through optical fiber utilizing
existing fibers of PSUs viz. BSNL, RailTel and Power Grid and laying
incremental fiber wherever necessary. Non-discriminatory access to the network
will be provided to all the telecom service providers. These access
providers like mobile operators, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), cable TV
operators, content providers can launch various services in rural areas.
Various applications for e-health, e-education, e-governance etc. will be
provided. The project will be funded by USOF and is being executed by a Special
Purpose Vehicle (SPV) namely Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), which has
been incorporated on 25.02.2012 under Indian Companies Act 1956.
Transition to New
Internet Protocol (IPv6)
IPv6
(Internet Protocol Version 6) is next generation Internet Protocol. With
depletion and exhaustion of address space provided by IPv4 (Internet Protocol
Version 4), it becomes essential to transit to IPv6 which provides huge address
space and many features for future needs. Countries around the world have
started transition to IPv6. India is the first country in the world where any
Government has released National IPv6 deployment roadmap with the policy
decisions. The Government has planned to achieve substantial transition to IPv6
in the country in a phased and time bound manner under the NTP-2012. NT Cell of
DoT is lead body for carrying out the process of IPv6 transition in the
country. National IPv6 deployment Roadmap (v-1) was released in July, 2010.
With the efforts of NT Cell, most of the Service Providers are now ready to
offer IPv6 services across the country.
Universal Service
Obligation Fund (USOF)
The Universal
Service Obligation Fund formed by an Act of Parliament is headed by the
Administrator USO Fund, appointed by the Central Government, for the
administration of the Fund. He is empowered to formulate procedures for implementation
of USO Fund schemes and disbursement of funds from USOF. Its office works as an
attached office of the Department of Telecom, Ministry of Communications and
Information Technology.
A
scheme was launched by Government through USO Fund to provide financial support
for setting up and managing 7353 number of infrastructure sites/ towers in 500
districts spread over 27 states for provision of mobile services in the
specified rural and remote areas, where there was no existing fixed or mobile
coverage. Villages or cluster of villages having population of 2000 or more and
not having mobile coverage were taken into consideration for installation of
the tower under this scheme. The infrastructure so created is being shared by
three service providers for provision of mobile services.
VPTs in newly identified
uncovered villages as per Census 2001: Reconciliation of the VPTs working in
the inhabited villages as per Census 2001 was carried out taking into account
the existing VPT and those provided under Bharat Nirman. All the remaining
62,443 inhabited villages as on 01.10.2007 as per Census 2001 irrespective of
criteria of population, remoteness, accessibility and law &order situations
have been included for provision of VPTs with subsidy support from USO Fund
under this scheme. Agreements in this regard were signed with BSNL on
27.02.2009.
Achievements for the
Year 2012
The
total number of telephone connections increased from 926.55 million to 965.52
million during the period from January to June 2012, resulting in increase of
tele-density from 76.86 % to 79.58 %. Thereafter, number of telephone
connections declined to 921.47 million by the end of November 2012, resulting
in decline in tele-density to 75.55 %. The net decline of telephone connections
was 5.08 million during the period January to November 2012. The number of
rural telephone connections increased from 315.39 million to 343.88 million
during the period from January to June 2012, resulting in increase of rural
tele-density from 37.52 % to 40.71 %. Thereafter, number of rural telephone
connections declined to 343.74 million by the end of November 2012, resulting
in decline in rural tele-density to 40.54 %. The number of urban telephone
connections increased from 611.16 million to 621.64 million during the period
from January to June 2012, resulting in increase of urban tele-density from
167.46% to 168.62%. Thereafter, number of urban telephone connections declined
to 577.73 million by the end of November 2012, resulting in decline in urban
tele-density to 155.40 %. The decline in telecom user base after June 2012
was primarily due to the removal of inactive mobile telephone connections by
the service providers.
The
number of internet subscribers increased from 22.39 million (including 13.35
million broadband subscribers) to 24.01 million (including 14.68 million
broadband subscribers) during the period from January to September 2012.
At the end of November2012, there were 14.88 million broadband subscribers
in the country.
Auction of Spectrum
Auction
of Spectrum in 1800 MHz band that commenced on 12.11.2012 has been
completed. Five companies participated in the auction.
National Optical Fiber
Network (NOFN) Project
· NOFN Project is envisaged as a Centre-State
joint effort. State Governments are expected to contribute by way of not
levying any RoW charges. This requires suitable tri-partite MoU to be signed by
GOI, State Governments & BBNL.
· Tri-partite MoU has been signed on 26.10.2012
with 13 States viz. Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand,
Karnataka, Manipur, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and
3 Union Territories viz. Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu and
Puducherry. A total of about 1,40,727 Gram Panchayats will get
covered by Optical Fibre Network in these States and UTs.
· Three Pilot Projects have been
completed to cover all Gram Panchayats of Arain Block in Ajmer District
(Rajasthan), Panisagar Block in North Tripura District (Tripura), Paravada
Block in Vishakhapatnam District (A.P.). As on 15.10.2012, each of the 58
Gram Panchayats in these three Pilot Project Blocks have been provided with 100
Mbps bandwidth.
· Survey work for ‘laying of incremental OFC’ has
commenced based on GIS data made available by NIC.
· BBNL has allocated the work of laying incremental
OFC amongst 3 CPSUs (Central Public Sector Undertakings) i.e. BSNL, RailTel and
Power Grid.
Universal Service
Obligation Fund (USOF)
Various
initiatives have been taken by DoT to cover the uncovered rural and remote
areas of the country, with the support from USO fund. The achievements with
regard to various OSOF schemes are listed below:
· 424 Village Public Telephones (VPTs) have
been provided during the year 2012 tillOctober 2012. At the end of
October 2012, 5.80 lakh (97.76 %) villages were covered with VPTs.
· As on 31.10.2012, 53452 VPTs out of the
62443 i.e. 85.60 % VPTs have been provided under VPTs in newly identified
uncovered villages as per Census 2001.
· 14 Mobile Towers and 209 Base Transceiver
Stations (BTSs) have been commissioned by Infrastructure Providers and
Universal Service Providers respectively under the Shared Mobile
Infrastructure Scheme, during the year 2012 till October 2012. Under
this scheme, 7310 (99.42 %) towers were set up by the end of October 2012.
· 52,628 wire-line broadband connections and 3,347
kiosks have been set up in rural and remote areas under the scheme, during the
year 2012 till October 2012 under theRural Broadband Scheme for
expanding provision of Wireline Broadband Connectivity upto village level.
· A subsidy of Rs.330.13 Crore has been disbursed
through USOF during the year 2012 till 31.10.2012. A total fund of Rs. 47035.33
Crore has been collected under USOF till 31.10.2012. A total of Rs. 22438.17
Crore of USO fund has been utilized till 31.10.2012 and available potential
balance is Rs. 24597 Crore.
Transition to New
Internet Protocol (IPv6)
With
the efforts of NT Cell of DoT, all central Departments and State Government
have nominated nodal officers for transition to IPv6. All stake holders are
sensitized for transition to IPv6 and are gearing up for IPv6 services. Many
workshops and seminars were organized during the year 2012 to educate and make
aware all the stakeholders about the implementation of IPv6 in their respective
areas.
Establishment
of an IPv6 Centre of Innovation Centre has also been approved in NTP-12. This
Centre is planned with the vision to provide an environment of end to end IPv6
Services under a single umbrella right from Training, Consulting,
Implementation, Research, Standards and Testing. Also, empanelment of certified training
organisations for IPv6 certified training courses is under process. To
achieve substantial transition to IPv6 in the country in phased and time bound
manner, the second road map for IPv6 deployment is in final stage and is to be
released shortly.
(Source:PIB Feature (pib.nic.in)).
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