Telecom Firms Rapped For Not Investing In Research

Several Members of Parliament last evening pulled up private telecom and information technology firms for not investing in research and development at a meet organised by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham).

Spearheaded by Narendra Mohan, MP and member of the Standing Committee on Communications, the MPs expressed the view that statistics do not compliment the private telecom sector. Mohan, in fact, said Assocham "must first control its own black sheep".

Assocham had organised a meet called the MPs Meet on Telecom and IT.

Responding to issues raised by P K Sandell, chairman, Assocham Expert Committee on Telecommunications and president, TISA, and Dilip Ghosh, co-chairman, Assocham Expert Committee on Telecommunications and director, Siemens PCN, Rajkumari Ratna Singh, MP, and member of the Standing Committee on Communications said" "The industry has let us down."

"Nothing is being manufactured in India," she said, adding that "at least there should be some R&D. Everyone wants access to the Internet. Even people in my backward constituency in UP aspire for an Internet," she said.

She exhorted the private sector to spread IT and telecommunications to backward areas as well.

The Assocham strategy calls for restructuring of telecom services by constituting a national developmental council on telecom and IT, abolition of licence fee on operators not using national resources.

It has also sought migration towards convergence of voice data, video and computer through the same media and evolution of a new telecom financing policy.