In an effort to enhance wireless coverage nationwide, the government of India has decided to provide 250 million telephone connections in the country by next year and plans to step-up 500 million connections by 2010. The minister of communication and information technology Dayanidhi Maran confirmed it.



India is experiencing a rapid expansion in telephone services with country adding over four million subscribers each month since December last year. The number of telephone connections breached 150 million marks including both fixed and wireless. The telephone connections have doubled in the last two years mainly due to the steady increase in the mobile phone networking.



The government wants to enhance coverage of mobile services to 85 percent of the geographical area of the country by 2007, Maran added. The ministry of communication and information technology has also asked the defense ministry to release 45MHz of spectrum by the year-end and introduce 3G services. The ministry has approached the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India TRAI to recommend the allocation and pricing model for the 3G frequency.





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