Monday, July 13, 2009
Another regulator?
Recently, DoT floated the idea of having a separate regulator for spectrum. Prof. Rekha Jain (IIM-A) has put up a strong case against the proposal in an Economic Times article. What India really needs is a consistent and forward-looking spectrum policy, which takes into our current and future needs. The ad-hoc approach adopted so far has resulted in unnecessay confusion and to some extent, stifled growth.
Monday, May 25, 2009
New Government, New Hopes
The election marathon is finally over and India now has a new Government. With the Congress and its allies winning an almost decisive mandate, there's a lot of optimism that we will some movement and clarity on several long-pending issues. From the telecom industry point of view, the two most important items on the to-do list are:
1. Auction of 3G and BWA spectrum
2. Action on the recommendations of the committee on spectrum-related issues
It's high time that India had a clear and forward-looking spectrum policy. The current ad-hoc approach has benefited none of the interested parties including mobile operators, the end user as well the exchequer. Over the past few days, a lot of noise has been generated by the Congress' desire to keep infrastructure-related ministries within the party in order to accelerate development on several existing and upcoming projects. Let's hope that telecom infrastructure is also accorded due importance by the new government.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Blazing ahead!
The remarkable growth in Indian mobile subscribers continues unabated. As per figures released by the regulator TRAI, a record 15.64 million new connections were added in March. With the two CDMA biggies (Reliance and Tata) rolling out GSM networks as well, India is all set to breach the 500 million mark before the end of 2009. For more, see the Lightreading story. The complete report can be downloaded from the TRAI website.
Monday, April 20, 2009
A Guide to India's Telecom Market
Lightreading has come up with another excellent report on the Indian telecom market. It covers a number of aspects including the licensing regime, fixed and wireless services providers, role of infra-sharing, rural coverage.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)