Speaking at a meeting with Kiran Rathee and Romit Guha, Scindia, who is also Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), said the government has not fixed a deadline for the sale of stake in Vodafone Idea but is not concerned about the day-to-day running of the company which is professionally run. He added that a competitive industry that provides choice and quality services to consumers, promoting local manufacturing and research and development are his key priorities. Excerpts:
What are your top priorities in the telecom industry?
Today, communications determine the economic destiny of a nation. Interconnectivity, communication and access to information have brought about a paradigm shift in people’s ability to succeed, and in the last decade, India has made leaps and bounds on many fronts. The total number of mobile connections has grown from 900 million to 1.16 billion subscribers, with a penetration rate of almost 85%. In terms of internet, it has grown from 200 million to 950 million. In terms of tariffs, there has been a 94% drop.
What was earlier 0.51 paisa per minute has come down to 0.03 paisa. 1GB data cost is now 9 rupees from 287 rupees. This change is immense. Having said that, we are on the brink of a new revolution. India, which was a trailing successor in 3G, has moved forward with 4G and 5G and today has the power to lead the world with 6G. As for my own agenda, there are five or six pillars. The first is saturation of 4G across the country. Around 20,000-22,000 towers need to be installed in the remaining 1,000 villages of India. The towers will be installed by TSPs (telecommunication service providers), private sector and BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam). This is something I am monitoring daily. The second is the rollout of BSNL’s 4G stack.
It is worth noting that India is the third or fourth country in the world to have its own 4G technology. That means it will have its own core, radio access network and data centres. It is important that the rollout is done effectively. We plan to roll out about 100,000 BTS (base transceiver stations) by the middle of next year. We have completed the rollout of about 22,500 so far. This will be a big leap for India. Not only in terms of manufacturing technology, but it will also create foreign exchange reserves as we will no longer have to import that technology.
Third, we are looking at a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for telecom equipment manufacturing. This has been successful. We have had capital investment of Rs 4,000 crore, production of about Rs 50,000 crore and exports worth Rs 10,000 crore. To drive this, we are looking at the design element of the PLI scheme and increasing incentives for design. Fourth, we are looking at quality of service (QoS) and the whole customer-facing issue. This is paramount as this ministry is a consumer-facing ministry. We need to ensure that quality of service is good across the TSPs and minimize the issue of spam and scam calls. Fifth, we are increasing research and development in the telecom sector. We are looking at 5G labs and promoting new start-ups. We also need to ensure that there is indigenisation of equipment.
What is the latest information regarding the Telecommunications Act and its various regulations?
We notified this Act in June, so we have a 180-day timeline to issue the 23 sections and 35 rules.
Q: Does the broad definition of telecommunications under the New Telecommunications Act include over-the-top (OTT) operators?
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is looking into this and I do not think it would be appropriate for me to comment at this stage.
Carriers are incorporating OTT into the definition of telecommunications and demanding a fair share of OTT revenues. What is your view on this?
This is part of the issues that the advisory groups are taking up, so let them (the carriers) take it up when they discuss it. I have set up six advisory groups and the stakeholders have defined the agenda.
The government is now the largest shareholder in Vodafone Idea. Is the worst over for the telecom company?
Vodafone Idea is run by a professional team. I don’t want to go into how it’s run or what the results are. My only concern as the Communications Minister is that there should be multiple players in the market. There are four players in my market. They all have healthy market shares, but to give customers choice, we need to make sure that all four are robust. For me, creating a level playing field for multiple players is a priority. At the end of the day, we need to ensure that customers are well served, both from a price perspective (we are currently the cheapest in the world) and a quality perspective. That’s my mission.
Is there a time limit for the government to continue holding shares in Vodafone Idea?
There is no timeline.
Spam calls are rampant and it seems like the authorities are always two steps behind in responding to the threat. What are your thoughts on this issue?
Please understand that technology comes with great benefits. But there will always be people who use it to achieve their own ends. I purposely do not use the word “abuse”. In case of fraud, it is abuse. Regulators are dealing with this issue very severely. Around 1.8 million calls have been disconnected in the last 3-4 months. I am very clear that customers who do not want to be on the receiving end of such calls cannot be subjected to such calls.
The government seems silent on BharatNet…
We have amended the BharatNet project with an outlay of Rs 1.39 lakh crore, which will complete the gram panchayats that were not included in BharatNet 1 and BharatNet 2. In the first two phases, 220,000 gram panchayats will be covered and the remaining 40,000 panchayats will be covered in the amendment project.
