At a time when the government is contemplating merger of two telecom PSUs -- MTNL and BSNL -- an architect of India's telecom revolution Sam Pitroda on Wednesday said that the merger was not the only solution and asked the government to give them more autonomy by lowering its stake to below 51 per cent.

Pitroda, CEO of World Tel and member of National Advisory Council, said the alliance alone would not make MTNL and BSNL stronger, rather they should get more autonomy to fight competition by reducing government stake to below 51 per cent.

"Merger (of BSNL and MTNL) is not the only solution. You have to make them more independent. You have to sell the bigger piece to the public," he said on the sidelines of CII Leadership Summit in New Delhi.

He said merger is one way only as one part is public other part is private.

"So by merging them, the other one becomes public automatically and then you (the government) go and sell a bigger piece of the shares so that the public owns larger pie and when government reduces stake from less than 51 per cent, they (the PSUs) will have more autonomy and flexibilities," he said.

On being asked whether he favoured listing of BSNL to dilute the government stake, he said: "You have to do it. It is a huge company. You are sitting on a jewel and you might as well cash in on it."

"You need to create a competitive environment for MTNL and BSNL. They are being blocked by government procedures and processes to make decisions in terms of procurements, investments," Pitroda said.

"Don't vacillate on merger. Do it," he said.

On the current issue of FDI hike in telecom to 74 per cent which has drawn the Left's ire, Pitroda said, "I don't think security is an issue any more becasue there are multiple networks. Security was issue at one time, when there was monopoly. If you have one monopoly and that is given to the foreigner, that monopoly can suffer."

"It is a matter of finding the right window and getting a consensus on it (FDI hike in telecom sector). Over a period of time, it is inevitable."

He said the consensus on FDI in telecom was eluding because it was a new thing and a big step forward. "A lot of people think the hike means giving away a lot of control. Any time you will have big policy change like this, naturally in a democracy, there has to be debate. It is healthy."

Earlier, he noted that India's national telecom target was to achieve 200 million phones by 2008 and said he saw broadband as the second biggest telecom revolution waiting to happen in India.

Observing that the costly last mile fibre was already there, he said India must achieve faster connectivity with lots of data. "The current Internet speed is very poor."

"Move up the value chain. Broadband is the next revolution," he said and added that health and alternative medicines should be focussed on in moving up the value chain.

"India's telecom outlook is good," Pitroda said.