Union telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has urged the telecom industry to improve the quality of service and sought recommendations on how to create a framework that enhances trust in the telecom sector.

“The Indian telecom industry has rapidly scaled up over the last 7 years. From just about 6.5 lakh base stations to day we are close to 23 lakh base stations in the country. While spread of services has really increased, the quality of service is an issue,” Vaishnaw said at a Cellular Operators Association of India-organised event on Wednesday.

Vaishnaw, who is also the IT and Railways minister, said that at present there are paramount concerns among all nations regarding the security of telecom networks.

“People want the devices, equipment and network operating system to be from trusted sources. New geopolitical realities are facing all of us,” the minister said, while asking the industry to give suggestions on a good framework on trusted sources and equipment.

Vaishnaw said that with rapid change in technology, the time frame of each generation of telecom protocol has shortened. He also said that the virtualisation of technology has brought new opportunities as well as challenges.

“So how do we bring solutions which allow us to shift over from legacy systems to new solutions which can bring better service from the people while avoiding disruption in service,” the minister said.

Commenting on the telecom reforms initiated in September, Vaishnaw said, “The series of reforms has reduced the regulatory framework, simplified many things and brought some changes and people oriented procedural changes.”