'Telecom sector set for consolidation'

Sam Pitroda on Monday said the time has come for consolidation in the Indian telecom industry. There will be six huge telecom operators and the rest will either join to form a telecom major or will merge into any of the major players.

Pitroda said the telecom sector will see the existence of BSNL, MTNL, Reliance, Tata Teleserves, Bharti, Hutchison and an entity that will comprise all the other minor players.

On a question whether Reliance Infocomm was unduly favoured in the process of opening up of the telecom sector, Pitroda said, "I do not know about that, but India has benefited a lot with the Reliance network. The company has brought down the prices in a big way. I believe this is good for the country."

Pitroda said the time has now come for taking data to the masses.

"We took voice to the masses. It is now time to take data to the masses. Our STD and PCO centres must now be able to provide data services to the masses in the local language. I believe this is possible in the next five years. Broadband needs to reach the masses now," he said.

He said, "Wireless and internet will be the next boom. It will just be a matter of time before people will not require to go to government offices to check land records or to get a birth certificate."

Pitroda, however, felt that the current call rates offered by both GSM and CDMA operators have stabilised.

"The rates will not increase drastically. But services being offered definitely will increase a great deal," he said.