Telcos contribute over 1.5 per cent to GDP: minister

The Indian telecom sector directly contributes over 1.5 per cent to the GDP of the country, has a multiplier effect on growth because of connecting the people and business around it. This was stated today by the minister of state (communication and IT) Gurudas Kamat in Mumbai at the launch function of Tata's GSM Mobile Service.

The Indian telecom Industry is the secon- largest wireless market in the world with a total wireless subscriber base of 435 million at present, it is targeted to reach 771 million by 2013. In addition to this, we have nearly 37.66 million landline subscribers. India has one of the cheapest cell phone rates in the world.

''Connecting rural India'' for both voice and data connectivity is the main target of India's telecom industry. Expressing satisfaction over the fact that the 74 per cent of new wireless subscribers are now coming from our rural areas as compared to 42 per cent from urban, the minister said that we also mandated the government owned telecom providers to accelerate rural broadband wireless deployment this year.

On India's telecom equipment manufacturing sector the minister said that this sector is also set to become one of the largest globally by 2010.

These manufacturing facilities, apart from making India self reliant, generate a lot of secondary employment. Sustained Government efforts in this area have yielded results and have enabled to achieve the objective of making India as a leading manufacturing hub for electronics, IT and telecom, he added.

Kamat said that the government is working on many more initiatives to further improve the telecom sector. These new initiatives include to bring inclusive connectivity to both rural and urban India; mobile number Portability which will not only give more choices to customers but also lead operators to further improve their services to retain their customers and auctioning spectrum for 3G and WiMAX within this financial year.

Complimenting efforts of Tata Tele Services Maharasthra Limited the Minister said ''Digital Mumbai''- a vision for broadband anytime, ''anywhere in Mumbai'' is a vision to create a digital infrastructure to enable Mumbai to take its rightful place among world cities.

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