From Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Telecom and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday said that the Centre under the comprehensive plan will expand mobile network in remote parts of North-East including Meghalaya considering the security of the region encircled by foreign countries barring a narrow corridor.
Prasad said this in a press conference organized marking the first 100 days in the ministry.
Prasad also said the guidelines for telecom spectrum trading and sharing will be in place by the end of the year.
“Guidelines will be in place by end of year on spectrum trading and sharing,” Prasad said at the press conference marking the first 100 days in the ministry.
In July, telecom regulator TRAI had recommended allowing sharing of all categories of radiowaves held by operators including those allocated at the old price of Rs 1,658 crore or assigned without auction, a move that could help companies significantly reduce cost of providing mobile services.
Trai had suggested that all access spectrum in the bands of 800/900/1800/2100/2300/2500 MHz will be sharable provided that both licensees are have spectrum in the same band.
At present, telecom operators have been allocated radiowave frequencies in 800 MHz (CDMA); 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz (GSM 2G/3G); 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz (4G) for wireless telecom services.
It may be mentioned that the Centre recently announced a comprehensive Rs. 5,336.18 crore mega Telecom Development Plan for the Northeastern region.
Meanwhile, NPP supremo, Punro A Sangma while Congratulating the Centre for the comprehensive Plan, has demanded a special attention to the region.
Sangma wrote a letter to Prasad.
He also attached a list of 100 villages under Tura Lok Sabha constituency spread over several assembly segments which need urgent mobile connections.
“Bringing these mobile network less villages under BSNL network will also help the BSF jawans who are guarding the Indo-Bangaldesh border in such areas,” he said.
“All these villages do not have any form of mobile connectivity yet, but have sufficient population to make it viable,” Sangma said in the letter.
“At the same time, there are some areas which are along the border with Bangladesh where people are using Bangladesh mobile networks due to unavailability of any Indian providers, ” he said adding ” This is not only inconvenient for the people as it costs them more, but is also not safe in terms of people including BSF jawans manning the border using Bangladesh network.”