The Hindu Business Line : Telecom row: Shourie calls for peace

THE Union Communications Minister, Mr Arun Shourie, has expressed the hope that the warring telecom groups - cellular and basic service operators - would drop all differences and join hands for speedier growth of the telecom sector.

Speaking at the announcement of the 20 millionth telephone instrument by Bharti Teletech Ltd, the manufacturing arm of the Bharti group, the Minister said that next to IT, the telecom sector held the most promise for future growth. "It is therefore imperative that all the different factions work together," he added.

The groups have failed to reach an understanding among themselves and are looking forward to the verdict of the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) scheduled for the first week of April.

The Cabinet decision taken on Tuesday to relax the licence stipulations for facilitating mergers and acquisitions in the telecom sector would provide an impetus to the sector, according to Mr Shourie.

Meanwhile, the Bharti group has become the largest manufacturer of telephone instruments worldwide outside China.

Mr Sunil Mittal, Managing Director of Bharti Enterprises, presented the 20 millionth instrument to Mr Shourie.

He said that while the first 10 million phones took the company 12 years (from 1987 to 1999) to produce, the second 10 million phones came in just four years.

"We are hoping to quicken the pace of growth significantly to achieve the third 10-million mark by 2005. We feel that this is an achievable target, given two clear trends.

"The Indian telephone market has been growing at 20 per cent and above consistently for the last five years, thanks to the telephone penetration targets of 7 per cent by 2005 and 15 per cent by 2010 (from the current level of 3 per cent) set by the New Telecom Policy 1999."

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