The world telecommunications network is one of the greatest human achievements. It links every country in the world, servicing millions of telephones and providing varied services. Innovation in telecommunications technology is proceeding at a dizzying pace, creating a dazzling array of new products, services and capabilities. Each new generation of technology tends to offer not only greater speed, capacity and versatility in the transporting and processing of information - but also lower unit costs. With the advances made in computer-communications link up, micro-electronics technology with incredible energy saving potential, large scale, efficient and versatile satellite communications systems, application of fiber optics and digital technology, telecommunications are without doubt taking us towards new possibilities with unimaginable range of usages and applications.
While there is a revolution taking place in communications technology, there is still an immense disparity in the extent of telecommunications service and in its quality as between cities and villages in India. More than 60% of India’s population live in rural areas and many of these areas have little or no access to basic telephone services.
Our government recognizes telecommunications as an indispensible arterial system of the information society. We accept telecommunications as an absolute necessity, a prerequisite and a pre-investment for development and as a barometer of social and economic health of communities. To this extent we have the provision of universal service as an important objective of telecommunication policy and legislation in our country.
However, when we consider that there are fewer than 5 telephones for every 100 people living in our villages, we believe that it is time to rethink our policies governing rural telecommunications. It is time to strengthen and expand the scope and extent of advisory services and technical support to rural India, with a view to remedying, through innovative effort, the imbalance in the distribution of telecommunications in our country.
We have brought together a list of documents that would give a better understanding of telecom policies and industry structure.
RTF’s Public Policy Recommendations
In June 2003, Union Minister Arun Shourie appointed a three-member BSNL committee to study feasibility of Gram-Phone project. For the Foundation's public policy recommendations made to the committee click here
White-papers:
Rural America: Connections To The Future - A Historical Perspective of Public Policy, Independent Telephone Companies and Universal Service by John N. Rose President, Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies.
Click here to download
Ensuring Rural And Remote Telecommunications Access - Technology, Community and History by Byron Henderson, Director of Network Policy Alliances, Acrossworld Communications, Inc. Paper presented at the First Roundtable of the Emerging Markets Forum Stanford University August 28, 2000.
Click here to download
Micro-Surveys Of Rural Telecom In India And USA, And Their Implications For India’s Public Policy - Joseph Pernyeszi, E. Madanmohan Rao, P. Yadagiri, Uday Kumar. Paper presented at the "Telecom in India" Conference, Asia/Pacific Research Center, Stanford University November 10, 2000.
Click here to download
Reports:
World Telecommunication Development Report – ITU – 2006 Click here to download
Twenty Years Of Measuring The Missing Link
Article prepared by Dr Tim Kelly, Head, Strategy and Policy Unit, ITU
Click here to download
The Missing Link: Report of the independent commission for world-wide telecommunications development - An International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Publication; 1984
Click here to download |
