At 110.01 million connections ' Indian Telecom
Industry' is the fifth largest and fastest growing in the world. The
subscriber base has grown by 40% in 2005 and is expected to reach 250 million
in 2007.
Over the last 3 years, two out of every three new
telephone connections were wireless. Consequently, wireless now accounts for
54.6% of the total telephone subscriber base, as compared to only 40% in 2003.
Wireless subscriber growth is expected to grow at 2.5 million new subscribers
every month in 2007. The wireless subscriber base skyrocketed from 33.69
million in 2004 to 62.57 million in FY 2004 -2005. The wireless technologies
currently in use ' Indian Telecom Industry ' are Global System for
Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). There are
primarily 9 GSM and 5 CDMA operators providing mobile services in 19
telecommunication circles and 4 metro cities, covering more than 2000 towns
across the country. And the numbers are still growing for ' Indian Telecom
Industry '. ' Telecom Industry in India ' is regulated by 'Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India' (TRAI). It has earned good reputation for
transparency and competence. Three types of players exists in ' Telecom
Industry India ' community –
- State owned
companies like - BSNL and MTNL.
- Private Indian
owned companies like - Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices.
- Foreign invested
companies like - Hutchison-Essar, Bharti Tele-Ventures, Escotel, Idea
Cellular, BPL Mobile, Spice Communications etc.
The ' Indian Telecom Industry ' services is not
confined to basic telephone but it also extends to internet, broadband (both
wireless and fixed), cable TV, SMS, IPTV, soft switches etc. The bottlenecks
for ' Indian Telecom Industry ' are:
- Slow reform
process.
- Low penetration.
Service providers bears huge initial cost to make inroads and achieving
break-even is difficult.
- Huge initial
investments.
- Limited spectrum
availability and interconnection charges between the private and state
operators.
The Government Broadband Policy 2004, aims at 9 million
broadband connections and 18 million internet connections in 2007. ' Indian
Telecom Industry ' is currently expected to contribute nearly 1% to India's
GDP which is heartening and estimated to grow further and brighten the ' Scenario
of Indian Telecom Industry '