TNI Bureau: In an ambitious plan, India is charting a grand scheme targeting its rural outback to reach telecom and broadband services to each of its 626,000 villages by 2013.
Telecom and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal has said that India is committed to achieve the targets of Millennium Development goals.
Addressing, the International Telecom Union Conference, ITU-2012 in Dubai he said, the government is working to ensure accessible and affordable modes of energy and communication for all in this regard.
Narrating India’s Telecom success story, Mr. Sibal said there are challenges in providing an accessible and affordable mode of communication. The Minister said, the villages across the country will be connected through the broad band by 2013.
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Mr Sibal the government is investing more than 4 billion dollars through Bharat Broadband to lay the fibre optic network for this purpose. He said the new spectrum pricing might be decided by the 18th of October.
The Minister also said, a tentative decision has been made and the clearan ce is awaited from the Prime Minister’s Office. The Telecom Minister also said that 4G applications are expected to be in place on a wider scale in the country by 2014.
‘The primary objective of the new policy is maximising public good by making available affordable, reliable and secure telecommunication and broadband services across the entire country,” Mr. Sibal said.
In fine, communications will be a great unifier and bridge the digital divide so that the “other India” in the hinterland also has access to high-speed data and telecom service.