TRAI urges Government to implement BharatNet in PPP Mode

To make broadband a core utility to citizens, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) advised the Government of India to implement BharatNet in the PPP mode to connect 2, 50, 000 gram panchayats across the country.

This was stated here on Thursday by R S Sharma, Chairman, TRAI, while speaking on 'India's Regulatory Priorities for 2017' on the second day of India Internet Conference

(IIC) 2017.

The theme of the conference was 'Digital India 4 Sustainable Development' and was organised by FICCI in association with the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), Government of India.

It was also suggested that the digitised TV framework, which has come up in the country in a big way, should be upgraded to provide broadband to 100 million homes.

The TRAI has also recommended tweaking the licensing framework to enable Wi-Fi hotspots as almost 800,000 such Wi-Fi hotspots were needed to connect India digitally.

Speaking about the overarching principles, Sharma said that the TRAI was regulating the sector to ensure consumer protection, quality of service, transparency, growth of the sector and a field for stakeholders. He added that the TRAI was regulating the sector to ensure its healthy growth. He also mentioned that the TRAI was working towards enhancing ease of doing business and was seeking recommendations from the stakeholders to identify the tricky areas.

"The regulations have lost their relevance over time and therefore the TRAI had formed a committee comprising the stakeholders to remove obsolete regulations. The TRAI is working towards identifying the important issues while dealing with urgent matters to bring out appropriate consultation papers," added Sharma.

He further said broadband proliferation in the country is a priority and added to digitally connect the country. The focus is on creating infrastructure, governance and services on demand, thus enabling digital empowerment of citizens.