It's official. Andimuthu Raja is the new communications and information technology minister. Among the first things he talked about soon after taking over today is extending telecom coverage to rural areas. That quite fits the bill. After all, the real growth in mobile telephony is happening in rural India.
But life is not going to be easy for Raja. That's because he has to settle many issues that are still pending. The A list includes spectrum allocation (both 2G and 3G), reduction of duties and allowing private mobile subscribers to roam on the network of state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).
The last one is an easy way to ensure that Raja can ensure deeper coverage at one go. The moment that happens, a 100 million private mobile subscribers can be mobile in rural India. But, by far the the key issue is spectrum. Defence is expected to release 42.5 Mhz of spectrum by July. The quicker the operators get spectrum, subscribers can get access to better quality services. it remains to be seen how quickly Raja can cut through the logjam. That could decide his fate.
The other issue is the high level of duties in the sector. If the duties are lowered, it will bring in an entirely new strata of people into mobile telephony. It remains to be seen whether he can convince finance minister P. Chidamabaram to agree.
Raja needs to take quick action on number portability. It has been hanging fire for close to a year. After all, that will make life a lot more better for consumers while making the operators all the more accountable.
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