Delhi has a large network of telecom facilities, which is vital for various economic activities and this has helped in concentration of these activities in Delhi in preference to other locations in the region. Likewise, provision of effective and efficient Telecom facilities in the entire NCR holds immense significance in the context of Regional Plan, where the ultimate aim is to promote growth and balanced development in the entire region. Thus, it would be necessary to extend similar telecom services in the region.

During the past ten years or so, large-scale developmental and technological changes have taken place, particularly in the telecommunication sector. This contributed to rise in the living standard of the people, awareness of its importance and personal conveniences. Thus, a rapid increase in demand for telephones has been generated in Metro centres, Regional centres and other smaller towns and villages in NCR.

Regional Plan-2001 and its Functional Plan for Telecommunication proposed uniform local call system in CNCR towns in the first phase and in the rest of NCR area in the second phase. The Plan also envisaged provision of single STD code for whole of NCR including NCT-Delhi and telephone on demand by 1997.

Review of the Regional Plan-2001 undertaken in the year 1999 emphasized the need to bridge the gap between demand and supply of telephones in the region and to upgrade all the remaining electro¬mechanical telephone exchanges to electro-digital exchanges and connect the same with modern transmission media such as optical fiber cables etc.

Over the last few years, significant improvement has been made in terms of capacity and technology upgradation to keep pace with the changing trends. The region has been covered with uniform local call system (direct dialing) with 95 level but with differential pulse rate depending upon the distance. This facility is available only for Delhi and intra-state. It has not been made available on inter-state basis. The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology informed that single STD code was not possible for the whole region due to technical/administrative problems. They also informed that the goal for providing telephones on demand in the entire region could not be achieved due to higher growth of demand than expected and penetration of telecom services up to the village level on a large scale.

As per the status provided by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the switch capacity in NCR has increased from 9,95,248 on 31.07.2001 to 14,11,650 on 30.08.2003. Similarly, the capacity of Direct Extension Lines (DEL) has increased from 8,46,628 to 18,88,067 and Wait List (WL) has reduced from 34,912 to 10,411 during the same period. Details of the same are given in Annexure 10/I. Various value added services, relevant to growth, like pagers, cellular, digital network and internet are available in most of the region. Data Internet Services are yet to be provided in some of the Haryana towns like Ballabhgarh, Bahadurgarh, Palwal, Panipat, Dharuhera, Rewari etc. Details are given in Annexure 10/II.

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has spent Rs. 3,301.70 crores during 9th Plan for upgradation of telecom services in the region.

The direction of growth in the National Capital Region will depend on the availability of water resources. Demand-supply gap of water is one of the key elements for the growth of the region, which needs to be bridged through various policy interventions and demand management. Following policies are proposed:

1. The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has expressed inability to extend the MTNL boundary to entire NCR and also in providing single STD code to the entire region because of administrative and operational reasons.
2. Since DoT is still operating on the basis of States, as the administrative jurisdiction of their circles, the local dialing facility on the regional basis is not available and inter Sub-regional dialing (i.e., between Haryana, Rajasthan and U.P. Sub-regions) is still through STD.
3. The goal of providing telephones on demand in the entire region is yet to be achieved. It is because of higher rate of demand than expected and penetration of telecom services up to village level on a large-scale.

In order to improve the Telecom facilities in the region by the year 2021, following strategies and policies are proposed:

1. Make available telephone on demand and sustain it thereafter so as to achieve a tele-density of 11.5 in urban areas and 3.0 for rural areas by March 2007.
2. Service providers (private sector and BSNL/MTNL) should be allowed to have a common inter-linked system of basic services for the entire NCR treating it as a single telecom circle and should be encouraged to supplement the efforts of DoT in achieving the goals. Further, efficient telecommunication system will reduce number of trips and load on the transport corridors.
3. Constituent States should provide land, building and other facilities to the telecom service providers for setting up of telephone exchange and other installations.
4. Provide high-speed data and multimedia capability using technologies including ISDN to all towns with a population of more than two lakhs.
5. DoT should promote tele-conferencing, net-meeting, internet protocol telephone, wireless LAN services etc. within the region at par with NCT-Delhi. The technologies such as General Packet Radio System (GPRS); Blue Tooth Technology; Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data Technology (AVVID), etc. should also be promoted.
6. Reliable media should be provided through adequate band-width, convergence of technology for voice, data and video, and connectivity through OFC up to the last mile. The rural exchanges should be synchronized to enable data transmission in a time bound programme.
7. All the villages in the region should be covered with telecom facilities. Telecommunications services in rural areas should be made more affordable by providing suitable tariff structure and making rural communications mandatory for all fixed service providers.
8. Use of non-conventional sources of energy for rural communication should be encouraged in coordination with the Ministry of Non-conventional of Energy Sources and concerned State Governments, as the availability of dependable power supply is a major problem in running telecommunications services in rural areas.
9. Integration of the telecommunication service network with power distribution network should be explored wherever it is technically feasible and commercially viable.

1. Tele-density 11.5 in Urban Areas and 3.0 for Rural areas proposed.
2. Entire NCR be treated as single telecom circle by service providers.
3. Provision of land for telephone exchange and other installations.

For more information on Telecommunications Sector in the NCR, please refer to documents below:

For perusing relevant ministry websites, please click http://www.dot.gov.in/