Our Correspondent
Communic
ation and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today announced that state-owned operator BSNL would provide nationwide free roaming service from June 15. Talking to media persons on completion of one year of NDA government, Mr Prasad said the two public sector companies, BSNL, MTNL have performed well and their subscriber base have gone up.
Ravi Shankar Prasad said “As always, BSNL has taken lead to announce yet another landmark decision in the larger interest of public which will benefit crores of its existing as well as new subscribers. Now BSNL mobile customers will not need to carry multiple SIMs and handsets during roaming. They are now free to talk as long as they want without worrying of any charges during incoming calls. In fact it is like a dream of ‘ONE NATION ONE NUMBER” come true. This will specially benefit the people having transferable jobs and student community who have to change their mobile numbers very frequently owing to transfer liability.”
Speaking on the occasion CMD BSNL, Anupam Shrivastava said “In the past also we were the first movers in many customer beneficial initiatives. In 2002 when we entered in mobile segment we started free incoming calls for the first time within License Service Area(State). Prior to that, the customers had to pay for incoming calls also at the rate as high as Rs.16/- per minute. Today the tariff in the telecom industry in India is the lowest in the world, its credit also goes to BSNL because before entry of BSNL in mobile telephony, the call rates charged by private operators were as high as Rs.24/- per minute. Recently we had announced FREE night calling facility to our landline customers to call any mobile and landline number of any network in India. BSNL was the first to offer such a facility. Although there could be slight reduction in revenue on account of free incoming calls during roaming but we expect to gain first mover advantage and anticipate offsetting this amount by arresting churn out/porting out and by acquiring new customers”.
Ravi Shankar Prasad also said national tele-density has increased the fastest in last 11 months and rural tele-density has increased by 4.5 percent. The Minister said the best ever telecom auction was held under the NDA government and it brought highest ever revenue of over Rs 1.09 lakh crore.
He said highest ever FDI came in Telecom sector in the last year. Mr Prasad also said spectrum sharing and trading policy will go to Cabinet this month.When asked about any proposed amendments in the IT Act, he said, there is no such proposal under consideration.
On radiation from mobile towers, Prasad said, if anyone come with a tangible and clear proof, the government will surely look into it. On cyber security, the Minister said, the government is committed to strengthen it.
To a question on attacks on cellphone towers in Jammu and Kashmir, he said, the government is serious on the issue and is fully committed to ensure security of cellphone towers in the state.