Today we celebrate The World Telecommunication and information society day’ on 17th May and on this day the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) was established to spread awareness of the value of telecommunications and the information society, by the UN General Assembly in 1969.
Economic growth and prosperity of a nation depends upon its progress in each sector of the economy and contribution from each sector matters since growth is interlinked with each and every sector. Telecommunication is one of the important sectors as communication with other sectors directly connected with telecommunications. The World Telecommunication Day is also celebrated to understand the importance of communication as every facet of our lives involves and revolves around communication that is enabled by telecommunication.
The Telecommunication and information sector remains one of the important areas where the Government of India has made great inroads along with private participation.
Key strategies of Govt. of India to Boost the Telecommunication sector.
India’s pay television broadcasting in India commenced as an informal, unregulated sector. Enabled by recent regulatory and policy interventions, the sector has transformed to a structured, regulated sector.
Digitization in the sector took place during 2012 to 2017. The sector lacked local manufacturing base and had to rely on foreign equipment in view of the time bound implementation of the Digital Addressable System (DAS) guidelines.
The government made policies to bring the telecom and broadcasting sector under a framework where divisions were made between manufacturers of equipment that compromise a separate entity and the entire distribution network chain.
The television broadcasting distribution value chain comprises of broadcasters, distributor platform operators3 (DPOs), last mile connectivity operators and equipment manufacturers/suppliers.
Broadcasting equipment manufacturers and suppliers are further classified into manufacturers of head end equipment (i.e., LNB, IRD, Encoders, Multiplexers, etc.,), Consumer end equipment (i.e., Set Top Box, Hybrid Box, etc.), and Network equipment (i.e., EDFA, GPON OLT, Optical Fiber Cable, Signal Amplifiers, Repeaters, etc.).
The growth of the broadcasting industry would eventually benefit from the growth of each subset of the industry mentioned above.
The headend equipment like the IRD, Encoders, Switches, Multiplexing equipment, CAS server Hardware etc. constitute an important part of the Television distribution network.
The demand for Cable TV has highlighted the demand for headed equipment. Nowadays such equipment’s mostly imported and local manufacturing in this segment is negligible.
Transmission equipment deployed in broadcast networks are common to a significant extent with the telecom sector and are accordingly sourced locally as well as through import.
The government has released the Union Budget 2023 and allocated Rs 1.23 trillion for telecom and postal projects. The total allocation includes Rs 975.79 billion for the Department of Telecommunications and Rs. 258.14 billion for postal projects.
Major announcements were made in the Union Budget2023 to give massive boost to the Telecom sector.
The government will set up 100 labs to develop applications using the newly-launched 5G services. The labs will cover, among other things, applications such as smart classrooms, precision farming, intelligent transport systems, and healthcare.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), which is expected to roll out 4G and 5G services this year, will get Rs 529.37 billion capital infusion from the government in 2023-24.
The government has allocated Rs 21.58 billion for optical fiber cable-based network for defense services and Rs 7.16 billion for telecom projects in the north-eastern states.
Mobile phone production in India has increased from 58 million units valued at about Rs 189 billion in 2014-15, to 310 million units valued at over Rs 2.75 trillion in the FY 2022-23. To further deepen domestic value addition in the manufacture of mobile phones, the government has proposed to provide relief in customs duty on import of certain parts and inputs such as camera lens and continue the concessional duty on lithium-ion cells for batteries for another year.
According to the budget document, the 2.5% basic customs duty on camera lens and its inputs/parts for use in manufacture of mobile phone cameras has been done away with.
Three centers of excellence for artificial intelligence (AI) will be set up to realise the vision of ‘make AI in India and make AI work for India’.
This will be set up in top leading educational institutions. Leading industry players will partner in conducting inter-disciplinary research, develop cutting-edge application and scalable problem solutions in the areas of agriculture, health and sustainable cities. As per the budget document, this will galvanize an effective AI ecosystem and nurture quality human resources in the field.
The government proposed to introduce two new provisions for tax deducted at source (TDS) on online gaming – levy of 30% on payment of net winnings in a financial year and removal of the current Rs 10,000 threshold for the levy of TDS. In case the amount is not withdrawn from user account, tax shall be deducted at source at the end of the financial year.
However, for lottery and crossword puzzle games, among others, the threshold limit of Rs 10,000 for TDS will continue.
The Way forward to overcome challenges in the telecom sector
Digital culture: Having a culture of digitally skilled workers are a boon for telecom sector as developing digital aligned infrastructure requires digitally skilled workforce. This will ensure that digital assets are in safe hands and will enable further research for innovation which are cost effective.
Data Management & analytics is crux for any industry and organization and data management will help ensure that telecom service providers understand their requirement and address their issues.
Grievance Redressal: To ensure consumers get seamless and secured telecomm services across India it is important to have Grievance redressal cell. This will help in understanding the standards of different platforms and if required actions can be taken against any platform that may air objectionable content (including OTT platforms).A more proactive and timely Dispute Resolution by TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal) is the need of the hour.
Technology Impact: It is important for telecom operators to harness the talent pool in the country, which is bringing about many new innovations in artificial intelligence, blockchain technologies, etc. Big Telecomm giants are using block chain technology to solve many of their complex issues in multiple areas.