New Delhi, May 18: Telecom secretary Nripendra Mishra today said the digital divide in the country is wide enough to cause tremors, but must not be allowed to result in fractured groups. ''A youngster in Delhi gets used to computers. But in some eastern parts of India (when I visited Gorakhpur) there were none to be seen,'' Mishra said after giving away the Sanchar Doot Awards to BSNL employees on the World Telecom Day.
''I am worried this kind of gap will result in different levels of aspirations. A pardigm shift is required in the thought process,'' Mishra said.
He cited several areas which need to be addressed.
Billing and quality of services need greater attention as the country gallops towards greater teledensity in rural and urban areas. ''Billing has to improve as the response time in settling (bills) from user to service provider must be reduced,'' he said. Mishra said infrastructure is another area which requires greater attention. ''The distance between data and voice is giving way to integrated levels of service,'' he added.
He lauded the BSNL which he said was instrumental in adding 5.25 million cell phones and is poised to increase the number to 20 million mobile connections.
''Today five lakh villages are connected all because of BSNL's efforts,'' Mishra added.
The focus should also be given on improving their role as a facilitator and finally reduce the cost of servicing of which tariff were one aspect.
He said there are bottlenecks in delivery of services, especially the universal services obligations (USO) in rural areas.
The Sanchar Doot Awards were given to BSNL employees Sohan Lal, Pramjit Kumar, Ashok Kumar Kear, M Venkata Subbanna, Suptasree Som and N Vasudevan.
Each award carries a cash purse of Rs 100,000 and 100 gm silver medal citation.

Bureau Report