7th November, 2002
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology  


SHRI PRAMOD MAHAJAN LAUNCHES IDEA CELLULAR SERVICE


Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Communications and Information Technology, Shri Pramod Mahajan has said that the Government would rethink the structure pertaining to spectrum management, license fee and revenue sharing in the Telecom sector. Necessary discussions in this regard would be held with the Finance Minister in the near future. Shri Mahajan made these observations while delivering his Address at the launch of the Idea Cellular Service in Delhi, today.

Elaborating further Shri Mahajan said that the changes were being contemplated in order to make competition sustainable between telecom companies. Currently, due to the policy initiatives initiated, tariffs in the telecom sector had reached the levels that were prevalent internationally, hence the spurt in competition between companies offering cellular services. Nonetheless, keeping in mind the future, appropriate initiatives may have to be undertaken, the Minister said.

During his Address, Shri Mahajan touched upon the necessity of providing quality services to the customer. Today, the customer expected value for the money that was paid by him. If the quality of services were good, nobody would mind paying extra. Due to the telecom boom in the country, today an average customer, the Minister remarked was not swayed by the tariff structure. The customer today, was the King and was very conscious of the value added products and services. He also called upon the cellular operators to optimally utilise the spectrum allocated to them in their operations. The need of the hour was to improve quality of services offered by operators in order to fulfill customer aspirations.

Though competition had brought down tariffs in the telecom sector, the market opportunities that were available were still immense. It was for each and every company, the Minister remarked, to tap the market potential according to its market strategy and customer focus. Cellular industry in India was perhaps the only sector that had broken social barriers in the country and that each and every person today used mobile services in some form or the other.