IT minister Vaishnaw affirms telecom sector to witness more reforms

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the Telecom Sector in the country will witness more reforms in coming years and asserted that the industry too will have to do its bit and reciprocate by improving quality of service significantly, the Ministry of Communications said in a statement. 

He was addressing the Annual Flagship Event 2022 of Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA), an apex industry body representing Digital Infrastructure providers industry in India.  

According to the ministry, Vaishnaw said that service quality parameters have to be significantly increased, and the Telecom Department should approach Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in this regard.  

He advised the Telecom Department to send a new consultation paper to TRAI for significantly increasing the quality-of-service parameters almost making it 3X or 4X of what it is today, the statement reads. 

The Minister said that the journey of 5G is going to be very exciting and noted that many countries took multiple years to reach 40% to 50% coverage. But we are targeting a very aggressive timeline and the Government has given a target of 80% coverage in short time frame and we should definitely cover at least 80% in a very short timeframe, he added. 

Vaishnaw said that the industry including Telecom Operators and Infrastructure Providers to move full steam ahead on improving quality of services in the country, now that a slew of reforms had been announced and more were lined up, the ministry said. 

The Minister said initiatives cannot be one-sided, and the equation has to be reciprocal, he added.