The seminar on “3G Mobile Broadband for All” kicked off with a key note address by Mr. Thiru A. Raja, the Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology.

In his speech, Mr. A. Raja traced down the interesting journey that mobile telephony services have embarked on in India. He drew a fascinating juxtaposition of the country’s tele density in 1995, when mobile services were first introduced with today’s scenario. Whilst the tele density was 0.8 per hundred persons then, today one out of every Indian boasts of a mobile phone.

Mr. A. Raja commended the dramatic performance of Indian mobile services which has now achieved a subscription base of over 250 million and is still growing. But in the same breath, he expressed displeasure about the fact that 70 percent of Indian citizens are still unable to enjoy the benefits of connectivity.

He emphasized on the importance of improving subscription base in smaller cities and town and rural India which constitutes huge proportion of the population. He underscored the need to stress on policy and regulatory interventions.

He further said that the much needed boost in rural telephony can be achieved through expeditious introduction of 3G/mobile broadband. According to him, mobile broadband is the most desirable and cost-effective way to increase broadband penetration in India.

Mr. A. Raja underlined the prospect of localizing and developing local content for 3G in rural areas to garner more takers. He further said, “I expect that 3G will become the predominant platform on which we will be able to build and deliver upon India’s broadband objectives. 3G can be used as a key tool for undertaking key social initiatives such as education, medicine, health services, etc.”

The Union Minister of Communications and IT closed the speech at a humble note saying that he benefited hugely from the wide range of experience and expertise present in the forum.