Sunday, May 18, 2003
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Andhra Pradesh
By Our Special Correspondent
Addressing participants of a seminar on ``World Telecom Day -- Helping all the World's People to Communicate,'' organised by the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FAPCCI) here on Saturday, he also stressed the need to address the issue of ``digital divide.'' The Governor said we must take note of world-wide developments not only in technology, but in the use of technology for providing all types of information and telecom services throughout the country at ``affordable'' prices. While appreciating the `spectacular' achievement of making telephone available to more than 5 lakh vilages out of 6 lakh villages in the country, the Governor cautioned against the ``digital divide.'' While some people do not even have the plain old telephone service, increasing number of people and enterprises were using the Internet. As information and knowledge was the most powerful aid to human resource building, a digital divide on this basis would be extremely harmful. The United Nations itself was concerned over this issue and a World Summit on Information Society (WIS) was being organised in Geneva and Tunis in two phases in 2004, he pointed out. Shyamlal Ghosh, Administrator of Universal Service Fund, Department of Telecom, said even if the entire licence fee were to be given to the USF, it might not be adequate to meet the requirement. He also emphasised the need to avoid the `digital divide'. Mr.Ghosh estimated that about Rs. 22,000 crores would be available with the USF in 7 to 8 years, if it is provided 5 per cent revenues on an `undisturbed' basis and as stipulated by Government. T.H. Chowdary, IT Advisor to Government of Andhra Pradesh, said there was need to bring down the 600 telecom service packages now being offered, to 4 or 5. Reeling out global statistics, he said annual addition of fixed lines was 80 million, of them 25 million in China and 8 million in India. Similarly of 400 million mobile phones addition, 50 million were in China and 9 million in India. Of 200 million personal computers being added, 8.5 million were in China and 2.5 million in India. Density of fixed lines was only 4.3 per cent in India and 16 per cent in China, while for mobile phones it was 1.3 per cent in India and 18.3 per cent in China. In one of his papers circulated on the occasion, he said business subscribers were the greatest beneficiaries of competition. Cautioning against `sluggish growth' of the Internet, he said this could not be remedied without reducing `local call tariff'. Internet Service Providers were not doing well, and over 150 out of 450 had surrendered licences. Omprakash Tibrewala, president, FAPCCI, said our national aim was to achieve teledensity of 20 per cent by 2008. With private players' entry, he said lot of hopes were raised that competition would lead to reasonably lower tariff. People and enterprises engaged in economic activity benefited by competition due to fall in long distance and international call rates.
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