Government sets up committee set up for bandwidth
New Delhi: Based on a serious concern raised by IT companies which were finding it difficult to exploit IT applications to promote their businesses due to lack of sufficient bandwidth in the country, the telecom commission has set up a committee to look into the issue of bandwidth.

The chairmen of Sebi and All India Banking Association, presidents of Internet Service Provider Association of India (ISPAI) and Nasscom are among the twelve members appointed for the standing committee. Other members of the committee include secretary, ministry of information technology, member (services), Telecom Commission, advisor (operation), DTS, advisor finance, CMD, VSNL, CMD, MTNL, director (PMO), and DDG (transmission), DTS. Senior DDG, customer services, DTS, will be the convenor.

The terms of reference of the committee include looking into the demand for bandwidth in the country on a short-term as well as long-term basis, assess availability of bandwidth, both at the national and at the international level, suggest steps to meet the gaps between the demand and supply besides making policy guidelines for speedy disbursal of the bandwidth for private leased circuits.

According to experts in the field, the department of telecommunication had so far been following two plans to meet the demand for the bandwidth in the country. Unfortunately both these projects—Sanchar Sagar Network and National Information Backbone have come to a standstill given the lack of commitment from the DoT, considering it was embroiled with other issues of privatisation of telecom and licensing.

The idea for a Bandwidth Advisory Committee was mooted during communication minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s recent visit to San Francisco. Paswan was asked by the US industry chiefs about the steps being taken to ensure the supply of bandwidth in the country for the promotion of software exports from India.
Back to News Review index page