Centre to promote telecom equipment production

March 16, 2011 01:51 pm | Updated October 18, 2016 01:01 pm IST - New Delhi

MoS for Telecom Sachin Pilot. File photo

MoS for Telecom Sachin Pilot. File photo

The Centre on Wednesday said it would give preferential treatment to Indian telecom equipment manufacturers in the New Telecom Policy, now being framed, as import bill of telecom equipment was rising rapidly due to high growth of the telecom sector.

“Import and indigenous production of telecom equipment have increased in the last few years. We have all access, expertise and all the raw material...so there is no reason that we cannot compete with the foreign vendors as far as quality of telecom equipment is concerned,” Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot said in the Lok Sabha.

The industry imported telecom equipment worth Rs.36,256 crore in 2007-08, Rs.46,809 crore in 2008-09 and Rs.42,444 crore in 2009-10, while indigenous production of telecom equipment stood at Rs.51,000 crore in 2009-10.

Fierce competition

Notably, the domestic mobile subscriber base is touching 80 crore, while over 1.50 crore subscribers are being added every month.

Reeling under fierce competition from their foreign counterparts, particularly Chinese companies, India telecom equipment manufacturers are asking the government to give preferential treatment of indigenous players. Domestic vendors have also been asking for reserving unused frequencies (spectrum band) for indigenous production.

Mr. Pilot said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had also floated a consultation paper last year seeking views of stakeholders and the industry on how to promote telecom equipment manufacturing in India. “We will take all steps to promote Indian telecom vendors,” he said.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.