A working group of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) on Monday said it estimates an investment of Rs 6,50,000 crore during the next plan. Of the total, Rs 1 lakh crore are expected to come from the auction of spectrum and renewal of licences, the working group said in a meeting held at DoT.

The telecom equipment segment is expected to lure Rs 2.85 lakh crore investments, upgradation of telecom networks Rs 1.4 lakh crore and broadband is likely to bring in Rs 1.25 lakh crore during the plan period.

Attributing this investment to growth in subscriber base, the group said that the current trend projects that India will have 1,200 million telephone subscribers by the end of the 12th five year Plan.

Of the total subscriber base, 25 per cent will consist of 3G and 4G technology users, it said, adding that there will be 175 million broadband subscribers by 2017. The country had 886 million telephone and 12.32 million broadband subscribers as of June 30, as per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India data.

E-governance, better connectivity and value added services would be growth drivers in the telecom sector and the industry needs to augment the strength of its telecom network for delivering services to a wider subscriber base, the panel said.