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.
