Government on Tuesday rejected two most repeated demands of the private telecom industry by saying no to opening the last mile access of Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam and sharing of their infrastructure by private players.
"If the state is not in the business of telecom, then their infrastructure can be shared and given to private players but in this case, the state is in the business and they are not in a social service segment.
"We want you (private players) not only to build, help to build but also to build yourself too.
"Do not try to use other's assets before you point a finger at others ask yourself what you have done," Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran said in New Delhi at the Indian Economic Summit.
This puts to rest any consideration of the government to allow sharing of BSNL and MTNL's infrastructure in rural areas by private players.
On another often repeated demand of unbundling of last mile access Maran said: "There is no necessity to unbundle .. we are doing very well and I am quite happy with the progress."
He added that BSNL had 250,000 and MTNL 100,000 broadband connections and from the peak price of Rs 5000, today BSNL and MTNL's connections are available at Rs 250 and Rs 199 respectively.
"Last year when I announced the broadband policies I made it very clear that the government is not for unbundling the last mile and countries had done so have taken it back, and there is 100 per cent copper penetration. Our copper is 4.75 per cent," he said.
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