Year End Review-2017: Ministry of Communications

Ministry of Communications

Important Achievements of DoT in the year 2017

Posted On: 28 DEC 2017 1:18PM by PIB Delhi

1. Launch of National EMF Portal: Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has launched Tarang Sanchar, a web portal of information sharing on Mobile Towers and EMF Emission Compliances, with a view to generate confidence and conviction with regard to safety and harmlessness from mobile towers, clearing any myths and misconceptions.  The portal can be accessed at www.tarangsanchar.gov.in. The EMF portal provides a public interface where an easy map-based search feature has been provided for viewing the mobile towers in vicinity of any locality.  By click of a button, information on EMF compliance status of mobile towers can be accessed. Detailed information about any tower site, if requested, will be sent on email to the users.  Additionally, any person can request for EMF emission measurement at a location by paying a nominal fee of ₹4000/- online.  Local Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM) field unit of DoT will conduct the test (the requestor can be present, if he so desires) and the test reports will be provided.  The portal also has ‘EMF Overview’ and ‘Learn’ Sections, which provide numerous articles, booklets and videos, to further educate the citizens about EMF and coverage of telecom services.  Public can also access the ‘DoT Initiatives section’ which has various leaflets, articles and Frequently Asked Questions.  The portal has the complete collated technical details of over 16.33 lakh base stations (BTSs), spread across the country, of all technologies (2G, 3G, 4G etc.) and of all Telecom Service Providers (TSPs).

2. Public Awareness Programmes on EMF emission issue: The nation-wide Awareness Programme, on EMF Emissions & Telecom Towers to build a direct bridge of engagement between different stakeholders and to fill the information gap with scientific evidence, initiated by DoT in 2016-17, have further been followed up at sub-state level by the TERM field units of DoT so that more and more people are made aware about the scientific facts on health effects of EMF emissions from mobile towers.  Pamphlets/Information Brochures on various topics related to EMF have also been published and distributed in various regional languages.  These programmes have helped in bringing lot of clarity on this issue and resulted in reduction of new court cases, public grievances and RTI on the related matters.

3. Launch of Satellite based mobile services through Satellite Gateway M/s BSNL: The Department of Telecommunications granted a License under ‘Suigeneris’ category to M/s BSNL on 25.08.2014 for “Provision and Operation of Satellite based service using Gateway installed in India” with all India service area on non-exclusive basis.  This work has been carried out by M/s BSNL in partnership with M/s INMARSAT and the Satellite Gateway has been installed at Ghaziabad, UP.  The Satellite mobile services through the BSNL Gateway have been inaugurated on 24.05.2017.  This is a quantum leap in the field of Telecommunications to connect the un-connected through the provisioning of satellite mobile services across the country.  The services are being provisioned in phased manner initially for the government agencies such as Defence Services, Disaster Management Authorities, Parliamentary Forces, Railways, PSUs etc. and subsequently for the common public.

4. Launching of schemes under Skill Development: Hon’ble MoSC (IC) has launched two schemes in the domain of Skill Development in Telecom Sector to commemorate the Birth Centenary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayaji as under:

(i)  Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Sanchar Kaushal Vikas Pratisthans Scheme -   It is a Pilot scheme which proposes to create the skill development training centres that will be opened in various rural, backward and other needy areas and will be named as “Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Sanchar kaushal Vikas Pratisthans”.  Initially in the Pilot phase, it is proposed to start 10 such centres to impart skill development trainings to 10,000 candidates taking the necessary training infrastructure from BSNL/other PSUs/Government Organisations/Private entities etc. Subsequently, as the scheme succeeds it will be spread to open more ‘Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Sanchar Kaushal Viksa Pratisthans’ across the nation.

(ii) Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Telecom Skill Excellence Awards schems: This scheme is aimed to recognize the special contributions of citizens of India in the areas of Telecom Skilling, Telecom Services, Telecom Manufacturing, Telecom Applications in deploying telecom dependent sectoral solutions for different fields such as agriculture, commerce, health, education etc.