Indian telecom sector: recent policies

 All the villages shall be covered by telecom facility by the end of 2002.
 The Communication Convergence Bill 2001introduced in the Parliament on August
31, 2001 is presently before the Standing Committee of Parliament on Telecom and
IT.
 National Long Distance Service (NLD) is opened for unrestricted entry.
 The International Long Distance Services (ILDS) have been opened to competition.
 The basic services are open to competition.
 In addition to the existing three, fourth cellular operator, one each in four metros and
thirteen circles, has been permitted. The cellular operators have been permitted to
provide all types of mobile services including voice and non-voice messages, data
services and PCOs utilizing any type of network equipment, including circuit and/or
package switches that meet certain required standards.
 Policies allowing private participation have been announced as per the New Telecom
Policy (NTP), 1999 in several new services, which include Global Mobile Personal
Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) Service, digital Public Mobile Radio Trunked
Service (PMRTS), Voice Mail/ Audiotex/ Unified Messaging Service.
 Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) has been introduced for providing telephone
connections in urban, semi-urban and rural areas promptly.
 Two telecom PSUs, VSNL and HTL have been disinvested.
 Steps are being taken to fulfill Universal Service Obligation (USO), its funding and
administration.
 A decision to permit Community Phone Service has been announced.
 Multiple Fixed Service Providers (FSPs) licensing guidelines were announced.
 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been allowed to set up International Internet
Gateways, both Satellite and Landing stations for submarine optical fiber cables.
 Two categories of infrastructure providers have been allowed to provide end-to-end
bandwidth and dark fiber, right of way, towers, duct space etc.
 Guidelines have been issued by the Government to open up Internet telephony (IP).

Emergence as a major player

In 1975, the Department of Telecom (DoT) was separated from P&T. DoT was responsible
for telecom services in entire country until 1985 when Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited
(MTNL) was carved out of DoT to run the telecom services of Delhi and Mumbai. In 1990s
the telecom sector was opened up by the Government for private investment as a part of
Liberalisation-Privatization-Globalization policy. Therefore, it became necessary to separate
the Government's policy wing from its operations wing. The Government of India
corporatised the operations wing of DoT on 1 October 2000 and named it as Bharat Sanchar
Nigam Limited (BSNL). Many private operators, such as Reliance Communications, Tata
Indicom, Vodafone, Loop Mobile, Airtel, Idea etc., successfully entered the high potential
Indian telecom market.

[edit] Privatization of telcommunications in India

The Indian government was composed of many factions (parties) which had different
ideologies. Some of them were willing to throw open the market to foreign players (the
centrists) and others wanted the government to regulate infrastructure and restrict the
involvement of foreign players. Due to this political background it was very difficult to bring
about liberalization in telecommunications. When a bill was in parliament a majority vote had
to be passed, and such a majority was difficult to obtain, given to the number of parties
having different ideologies.

Liberalization started in 1981 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed contracts with
Alcatel CIT of France to merge with the state owned Telecom Company (ITI), in an effort to
set up 5,000,000 lines per year. But soon the policy was let down because of political
opposition. She invited Sam Pitroda a US based NRI to set up a Center for Development of
Telematics(C-DOT), however the plan failed due to political reasons. During this period,
after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, under the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi, many public
sector organizations were set up like the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) , VSNL
and MTNL. Many technological developments took place in this regime but still foreign
players were not allowed to participate in the telecommunications business.[17]

The demand for telephones was ever increasing. It was during this period that the P.N Rao
led government introduced the national telecommunications policy [NTP] in 1994 which
brought changes in the following areas: ownership, service and regulation of
telecommunications infrastructure. They were also successful in establishing joint ventures
between state owned telecom companies and international players. But still complete
ownership of facilities was restricted only to the government owned organizations. Foreign
firms were eligible to 49% of the total stake. The multi-nationals were just involved in
technology transfer, and not policy making.[17]

During this period, the World Bank and ITU had advised the Indian Government to liberalize
long distance services in order to release the monopoly of the state owned DoT and VSNL;
and to enable competition in the long distance carrier business which would help reduce
tariff's and better the economy of the country. The Rao run government instead liberalized the
local services, taking the opposite political parties into confidence and assuring foreign
involvement in the long distance business after 5 years. The country was divided into 20
telecommunication circles for basic telephony and 18 circles for mobile services. These
circles were divided into category A, B and C depending on the value of the revenue in each
circle. The government threw open the bids to one private company per circle along with
government owned DoT per circle. For cellular service two service providers were allowed
per circle and a 15 years license was given to each provider. During all these improvements,
the government did face oppositions from ITI, DoT, MTNL, VSNL and other labor unions,
but they managed to keep away from all the hurdles.[17]

After 1995 the government set up TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) which
reduced the interference of Government in deciding tariffs and policy making. The DoT
opposed this. The political powers changed in 1999 and the new government under the
leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee was more pro-reforms and introduced better liberalization
policies. They split DoT in two- one policy maker and the other service provider (DTS)
which was later renamed as BSNL. The proposal of raising the stake of foreign investors
from 49% to 74% was rejected by the opposite political party and leftist thinkers. Domestic
business groups wanted the government to privatize VSNL. Finally in April 2002, the
government decided to cut its stake of 53% to 26% in VSNL and to throw it open for sale to
private enterprises. TATA finally took 25% stake in VSNL.[17]
This was a gateway to many foreign investors to get entry into the Indian Telecom Markets.
After March 2000, the government became more liberal in making policies and issuing
licenses to private operators. The government further reduced license fees for cellular service
providers and increased the allowable stake to 74% for foreign companies. Because of all
these factors, the service fees finally reduced and the call costs were cut greatly enabling
every common middle class family in India to afford a cell phone. Nearly 32 million handsets
were sold in India. The data reveals the real potential for growth of the Indian mobile market.
[18]

In March 2008 the total GSM and CDMA mobile subscriber base in the country was 375
million, which represented a nearly 50% growth when compared with previous year.[19] As
the unbranded Chinese cell phones which do not have International Mobile Equipment
Identity (IMEI) numbers pose a serious security risk to the country, Mobile network operators
therefore planned to suspend the usage of around 30 million mobile phones (about 8 % of all
mobiles in the country) by 30 April.[20] 5–6 years the average monthly subscribers additions
were around 0.05 to 0.1 million only and the total mobile subscribers base in December 2002
stood at 10.5 millions. However, after a number of proactive initiatives were taken by
regulators and licensors, the total number of mobile subscribers has increased greatly to 617
million subscribers as of May 2010.[21][22]

India has opted for the use of both the GSM (global system for mobile communications) and
CDMA (code-division multiple access) technologies in the mobile sector. In addition to
landline and mobile phones, some of the companies also provide the WLL service. The
mobile tariffs in India have also become lowest in the world. A new mobile connection can
be activated with a monthly commitment of US$0.15 only. In 2005 alone additions increased
to around 2 million per month in the year 2003-04 and 2004-05.[citation needed]

In June 2009, the Government of India banned the import of several mobile phones
manufactured in China citing concerns over quality and the lack of IMEI's which make it
difficult for authorities in India to track the sale and use of such phones.[23] In April 2010, the
Government was also reported to be blocking Indian service providers from purchasing
Chinese mobile technology citing concerns that Chinese hackers could compromise the
Indian telecommunications network during times of national emergency. A series of attacks
on Indian government websites and computer networks by suspected Chinese hackers has
also made Indian regulators suspicious with regards to the import of potentially sensitive
equipment from China. The companies reported to be affected by this are Huawei
Technologies and ZTE.[24][25][26]

[edit] Telecommunications Regulatory Environment in India

LIRNEasia's Telecommunications Regulatory Environment (TRE) index, which summarizes

stakeholders’ perception on certain TRE dimensions, provides insight into how conducive the
environment is for further development and progress. The most recent survey was conducted
in July 2008 in eight Asian countries, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka,
Maldives, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines. The tool measured seven dimensions: i)
market entry; ii) access to scarce resources; iii) interconnection; iv) tariff regulation; v) anti-
competitive practices; and vi) universal services; vii) quality of service, for the fixed, mobile
and broadband sectors.
The results for India, point out to the fact that the stakeholders perceive the TRE to be most
conducive for the mobile sector followed by fixed and then broadband. Other than for Access
to Scarce Resources the fixed sector lags behind the mobile sector. The fixed and mobile
sectors have the highest scores for Tariff Regulation. Market entry also scores well for the
mobile sector as competition is well entrenched with most of the circles with 4-5 mobile
service providers. The broadband sector has the lowest score in the aggregate. The low
penetration of broadband of mere 3.87 against the policy objective of 9 million at then end of
2007 clearly indicates that the regulatory environment is not very conducive.[27]

[edit] Revenue and growth

The total revenue in the telecom service sector was 86,720 crore (US$ 19.7 billion) in 2005-
06 as against 71,674 crore (US$ 16.3 billion) in 2004-2005, registering a growth of 21%.
The total investment in the telecom services sector reached 200,660 crore (US$ 45.5 billion)
in 2005-06, up from 178,831 crore (US$ 40.6 billion) in the previous fiscal.[28]

Telecommunication is the lifeline of the rapidly growing Information Technology industry.

Internet subscriber base has risen to 6.94 million in 2005-2006. Out of this 1.35 million were
broadband connections.[29] More than a billion people use the internet globally.

Under the Bharat Nirman Programme, the Government of India will ensure that 66,822
revenue villages in the country, which have not yet been provided with a Village Public
Telephone (VPT), will be connected. However doubts have been raised about what it would
mean for the poor in the country.[30]

It is difficult to ascertain fully the employment potential of the telecom sector but the
enormity of the opportunities can be gauged from the fact that there were 3.7 million Public
Call Offices in December 2005[31] up from 2.3 million in December 2004.

The value added services (VAS) market within the mobile industry in India has the potential
to grow from US$500 million in 2006 to a whopping US$10 billion by 2009.[32]

[edit] Telephone

On landlines, intra-circle calls are considered local calls while inter-circle are considered long
distance calls. Currently Government is working to integrate the whole country in one
telecom circle. For long distance calls, the area code prefixed with a zero is dialed first which
is then followed by the number (i.e. To call Delhi, 011 would be dialed first followed by the
phone number). For international calls, "00" must be dialed first followed by the country
code, area code and local phone number. The country code for India is 91.

Telephone Subscribers (Wireless and Landline): 688.38 million (July 2010) [4]

Land Lines: 35.96 million (July 2010)[4]

Cell phones: 652.42 million (July 2010) [4]

Yearly Cell phone Addition: 178.25 million (Jan-Dec 2009)[4]

Monthly Cell phone Addition: 16.92 million (July 2010) [4]

Teledensity: 58.17% (July 2010) [4]

Projected Teledensity: 1 billion, 84% of population by 2012.[33]

[edit] Mobile telephones

See also: List of mobile network operators of India

With a subscriber base of more than 650 million,[4] the Mobile telecommunications system in
India is the second largest in the world and it was thrown open to private players in the
1990s. The country is divided into multiple zones, called circles (roughly along state
boundaries). Government and several private players run local and long distance telephone
services. Competition has caused prices to drop and calls across India are one of the cheapest
in the world.[34] The rates are supposed to go down further with new measures to be taken by
the Information Ministry.[35] In September 2004, the number of mobile phone connections
crossed the number of fixed-line connections and presently dwarfs the wireline segment by a
ratio of around 20:1.[4] The mobile subscriber base has grown by a factor of over a hundred
and thirty, from 5 million subscribers in 2001 to over 650 million subscribers as of July 2010
[4]
(a period of less than 9 years) . India primarily follows the GSM mobile system, in the
900 MHz band. Recent operators also operate in the 1800 MHz band. The dominant players
are Airtel, Reliance Infocomm, Vodafone, Idea cellular and BSNL/MTNL. There are many
smaller players, with operations in only a few states. International roaming agreements exist
between most operators and many foreign carriers.

India is divided into 23 telecom circles. They are listed below:[36]

 Assam
 Andhra Pradesh
 Bihar & Jharkhand
 Chennai
 Delhi & NCR
 Gujarat & Daman & Diu
 Haryana
 Himachal Pradesh
 Jammu and Kashmir
 Karnataka
 Kerala & Lakshadweep
 Kolkata
 Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh
 Maharashtra (excluding Mumbai) & Goa
 Mumbai
 North Eastern States (Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, &
Tripura)
 Orissa
 Punjab
 Rajasthan
 Tamil Nadu excluding Chennai & Puducherry
 Eastern Uttar Pradesh
 Western Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand
  West Bengal (excluding Kolkata), Andaman & Nicobar Islands & Sikkim

The following table gives details regarding the subscriber base of each Mobile Service
Provider in India as of 31 July 2010

Operator Subscriber base[4] Market Share [4]

Bharti Airtel 139,220,882 21.34%

MTNL 5,255,444 0.81%

BSNL 73,781,448 11.31%

Reliance Communications 113,315,831 17.37%

Aircel 43,296,659 6.64%

Sistema 5,582,683 0.86%

Loop 2,947,288 0.45%

Unitech 6,873,798 1.05%

Idea 70,748,936 10.84%

Etisalat 30,023 0.005%

Videocon 2,777,396 0.43%

Stel 1,423,043 0.22%

Tata Teleservices 74,850,220 11.47%

HFCL Infotel 851,887 0.13%

Vodafone 111,465,260 17.08%

All India 652,420,798 100%

A list of ten states (including the metros Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai in their respective
states) with the largest subscriber base as of July 2010 is given below

Subscriber base [4] Population (01/08/2010) [37] Mobile phones per 1000
State
population

Uttar Pradesh 85,185,307 199,415,992 427

Maharashtra 78,020,851 110,351,688 707

Tamil Nadu 59,709,708 67,773,611 881

Andhra Pradesh 50,507,427 84,241,069 600

West Bengal 47,088,259 90,524,849 520

Bihar 41,898,468 97,560,027 430

Karnataka 41,804,172 58,969,294 709

Gujarat 36,097,163 58,388,625 618

Rajasthan 36,083,720 67,449,102 535

Madhya
35,391,441 72,362,313 489
Pradesh

India 652,420,798 1,188,783,351 549

[edit] Landlines

Until recently, only the Government-owned BSNL and MTNL were allowed to provide
landline phone services through copper wire in India with MTNL operating in Delhi and
Mumbai and BSNL servicing all other areas of the country. Private operators such as
Touchtel and Tata Teleservices have entered the market however, the primary focus of their
business is on the mobile-phone sector.[citation needed] Due to the rapid growth of the cellular
phone industry in India, landlines are facing stiff competition from cellular operators. This
has forced landline service providers to become more efficient and improve their quality of
service. Landline connections are now also available on demand, even in high density urban
areas. The breakup of wireline subscriber base in India as of September 2009 is given
below[38]

Operator Subscriber base

BSNL 28,446,969

MTNL 3,514,454

Bharti Airtel 2,928,254

Reliance Communications 1,152,237

Tata Teleservices 1,003,261

HFCL Infotel 165,978

Teleservices Ltd 95,181

All India 37,306,334

The list of eight states (including the metros Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai in their
respective states) with largest subscriber base as of September 2009 is given below[38]

State Subscriber base

Maharashtra 5,996,912

Tamil Nadu 3,620,729

Kerala 3,534,211

Uttar Pradesh 2,803,049

Karnataka 2,751,296

Delhi 2,632,225

West Bengal 2,490,253

Andhra Pradesh 2,477,755

[edit] Internet

The total subscriber base for internet users in India is 81 million as of 2009.[39] Internet
penetration in India is one of the lowest in the world which is about 7.0% of the population,
compared to other nations like United States, Japan or South Korea where internet
penetration is significantly higher than in India.[39]

The number of broadband connections in India have seen a continuous growth since the
beginning of 2006. At the end of January 2010, total broadband connections in the country
have reached 8.03 million.

Broadband in India is more expensive as compared to Western Europe/United Kingdom and

United States.[40]

After economic liberalization in 1992, many private ISPs have entered the market, many with
their own local loop and gateway infrastructures. The telecom services market is regulated by
the TRAI and the DoT, which has been known to impose censorship on some websites.

See also: List of ISPs in India

See also: Internet censorship in India

[edit] Low Speed Broadband (256 kbit/s - 2 mbit/s)

The current definition of Broadband in India is speeds of 256 kbit/s. TRAI on July 2009 has
recommended raising this limit to 2 Mbit/s.[41]

As of January 2010, India has 9.24 million broadband users comprising of 6.0% of the
population.[42] India ranks one of the lowest provider of broadband speed as compared
countries such as Japan, South Korea and France.[9][40]

Because of the increase in Broadband penetration and the quality of service steadily
improving, many non-resident Indians are now enjoying the ability to communicate with
family in India from around the world. However, many consumers complain that ISPs still
fail to provide the advertised speeds - some even failing to meet the 256 kbit/s standards.
[edit] High Speed Broadband (over 2 Mbit/s)

 Airtel has launched plans up to 16 Mbit/s on ADSL2+ enabled lines and is piloting new 30
Mbit/s and 50 Mbit/s plans in limited areas. [43]
 Beam Telecom offers plans up to 6 Mbit/s for home users and has 20 Mbit/s plans available
for power users in only Hyderabad city. [44]
 BSNL offers ADSL up to 8 Mbit/s in many cities.[45]
 Hayai Broadband will offer FTTH services up to 100 Mbit/s, with an Internal network speed
of 1 Gbit/s.
 Honesty Net Solutions offers Broadband over Cable at up to 4 Mbit/s.
 MTNL offers VDSL at speeds up to 20 Mbit/s in selected areas, also provides bandwidth at
astonishing speed of 155 Mbit/s , thus making it the fastest ISP in India/ [46]

[47]

 Reliance Communications offers 10 Mbit/s and 20 Mbit/s broadband internet services in

selected areas.[48]
 Tata Indicom offers 10 Mbit/s, 20 Mbit/s and 100 Mbit/s options under the "Lightning Plus"
tariffs structure/[49]
 Tikona Digital Networks Wireless Broadband service which is powered by OFDM and MIMO
4th Generation(4G) technologies with 2 Mbit/s [50]
 O-Zone Networks Private Limited Pan-India public Wi-Fi hotspot provider giving wireless
broadband up to 2 Mb/s.[51]

See also: List of ISPs in India

The main problem consumers face with High Speed Broadband in India is that they are
frequently expensive and/or they have limited amounts of data transfer included in the plan.

[edit] Statistics

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) & Hosts: 86,571 (2004) Source: CIA World FactBook

Country code (Top-level domain): IN

[edit] Broadcasting
Main article: Media of India
AIR FM Tower at Kadri, Mangalore.

Radio broadcast stations: AM 153, FM 91, shortwave 68 (1998)

Radios: 116 million (1997)

Television terrestrial broadcast stations: 562 (of which 82 stations have 1 kW or greater
power and 480 stations have less than 1 kW of power) (1997)

Televisions: 110 million (2006)

In India, only the government owned Doordarshan (Door = Distant = Tele, Darshan =
Vision) is allowed to broadcast terrestrial television signals. It initially had one major
National channel (DD National) and a Metro channel in some of the larger cities (also known
as DD Metro).

Satellite/Cable television took off during the first Gulf War with CNN. There are no
regulations against ownership of satellite dish antennas, or operation of cable television
systems, which led to an explosion of viewership and channels, led by the Star TV group and
Zee TV. Initially restricted to music and entertainment channels, viewership grew, giving rise
to several channels in regional languages and many in the national language, Hindi. The main
news channels available were CNN and BBC World. In the late 1990s, many current affairs
and news channels sprouted, becoming immensely popular because of the alternative
viewpoint they offered compared to Doordarshan. Some of the notable ones are Aaj Tak
(means Till Today, run by the India Today group) and STAR News, CNN-IBN, Times Now,
initially run by the NDTV group and their lead anchor, Prannoy Roy (NDTV now has its own
channels, NDTV 24x7, NDTV Profit, NDTV India and NDTV Imagine).New Delhi
TeleVision.

Here is a reasonably comprehensive List of Indian television stations.

[edit] Next generation networks

In the Next Generation Networks, multiple access networks can connect customers to a core
network based on IP technology. These access networks include fibre optics or coaxial cable
networks connected to fixed locations or customers connected through wi-fi as well as to 3G
networks connected to mobile users. As a result, in the future, it would be impossible to
identify whether the next generation network is a fixed or mobile network and the wireless
access broadband would be used both for fixed and mobile services. It would then be futile to
differentiate between fixed and mobile networks – both fixed and mobile users will access
services through a single core network.

Indian telecom networks are not so intensive as developed country’s telecom networks and
India's teledensity is low only in rural areas. 670,000 route kilometers (419,000 miles) of
optical fibres has been laid in India by the major operators, even in remote areas and the
process continues. BSNL alone, has laid optical fibre to 30,000 Telephone Exchanges out of
their 36 Exchanges. Keeping in mind the viability of providing services in rural areas, an
attractive solution appears to be one which offers multiple service facility at low costs. A
rural network based on the extensive optical fibre network, using Internet Protocol and
offering a variety of services and the availability of open platforms for service development,
viz. the Next Generation Network, appears to be an attractive proposition. Fibre network can
be easily converted to Next Generation network and then used for delivering multiple
services at cheap cost.

[edit] Mobile Number Portability (MNP)

Number portability: TRAI announced the rules and regulations to be followed for the Mobile
Number Portability in their draft release on 23 September 2009. Mobile Number Portability
(MNP) allows users to retain their numbers, while shifting to a different service provider
provided they follow the guidelines set by TRAI. Users are expected to holding the mobile
number with a given provider for at least 90 days, before they decide to move to the other
provider.[52]

As per news reports, Government of India decided to implement MNP from December 31,
2009 in Metros & category ‘A’ service areas and by March 20, 2010 in rest of the country.

It has been postponed to March 31, 2010 in Metros & category 'A' service areas. However,
time and time again, lobbying by the state-run firms, BSNL and MTNL has resulted in
innumerable delays in the implementation of Mobile Number portability. The latest reports
suggest BSNL and MTNL are finally ready to implement the Mobile Number Portability by
October 31, 2010.[53]

The latest official report is that Mobile Number Portability will be phased in slowly, starting
with Haryana which will have MNP on or soon after November 1 2010.[54]

[edit] International

 Nine satellite earth stations - 8 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Inmarsat (Indian Ocean region).
 Nine gateway exchanges operating from Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Jalandhar,
Kanpur, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad and Ernakulam.
[edit] Submarine cables

 LOCOM linking Chennai to Penang, Malaysia

 India-UAEcable linking Mumbai to Al Fujayrah, UAE.
 SEA-ME-WE 2 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 2)
 SEA-ME-WE 3 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 3) - Landing sites at Cochin and
Mumbai. Capacity of 960 Gbit/s.
 SEA-ME-WE 4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4) - Landing sites at Mumbai
and Chennai. Capacity of 1.28 Tbit/s.
 Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG-FEA) with a landing site at Mumbai (2000). Initial
design capacity 10 Gbit/s, upgraded in 2002 to 80 Gbit/s, upgraded to over 1 Tbit/s (2005).
 TIISCS (Tata Indicom India-Singapore Cable System), also known as TIC (Tata Indicom Cable),
Chennai to Singapore. Capacity of 5.12 Tbit/s.
 i2i - Chennai to Singapore. Capacity of 8.4 Tbit/s.
 SEACOM From Mumbai to the Mediterranean, via South Africa. It currently joins with SEA-
ME-WE 4 off the west coast of Spain to carry traffic onward to London (2009). Capacity of
1.28 Tbit/s.
 I-ME-WE (India-Middle East-Western Europe) with two landing sites at Mumbai (2009).
Capacity of 3.84 Tbit/s.
 EIG (Europe-India Gateway), landing at Mumbai (due Q2 2010).
 MENA (Middle East North Africa).
 TGN-Eurasia (Announced) Landing at Mumbai (due 2010?), Capacity of 1.28 Tbit/s
 TGN-Gulf (Announced) Landing at Mumbai (due 2011?), Capacity Unknown.

[edit] Telecom Training in India

The incumbent telecom operators (BSNL & MTNL) have maintained several telecom
training centres at regional, circle and district level. BSNL has three national level
institutions, namely Advanced Level Telecom Training Centre (ALTTC) at Ghaziabad, UP;
Bharat Ratna Bhim Rao Ambedkar Institute Of Telecom Training at Jabalpur, MP; and
National Academy of Telecom Finance and Management.

MTNL incorporated Centre for Excellence in Telecom Technology and Management

(CETTM) in 2003-04. It is the largest telecom training centre in India and one of the biggest
in Asia with a capex plan of over 100 crore (US$ 22.7 million). CETTM is situated at
Hiranandani Gardens, Powai, Mumbai with built area of 486,921 sq ft (45,236.4 m2). It
provides training in telecom switching, transmission, wireless communication, telecom
operations and management to corporates and students besides its own internal employees.

Other than the government opearators some private players like Bharti (Bharti School of
Telecom Management part of IIT Delhi), Aegis School of Business and
Telecommunication(Banglore and Mumbai) and Reliance have started their own training
centres.

In addition some independent centres like Telcoma Technologies providing Telecom

Training have also evolved in India.

Telecommunications Statistics in India

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Telecommunications Statistics in India

Contents
[hide]

 1 Introduction
 2 Telephone statistics
 3 Broadcasting Statistics in India
 4 References

[edit] Introduction

India has the fastest growing telecom network in the world with its high population and
development potential. Airtel , Idea, Reliance, BSNL, Aircel,Tata Indicom, Vodafone,
MTNL, and Loop Mobile are other major operators in India. However, rural India still lacks
strong infrastructure. India's public sector telecom company BSNL is the 7th largest telecom
company in world.

Telephony introduced in India in 1882. Today the total number of telephone subscribers in
the country crossed the 600 million mark in July 2010 [1] and the total numbers of telephone
subscribers have reached 688.38 million at the end of July 2010 [2]. The overall tele-density
has increased to 58.17%% in July 2010 [3]. In the wireless segment, 16.92 million subscribers
have been added in July 2010 [4]. The total wireless (GSM, CDMA & WLL (F)) subscribers’
base is 652.42 million as of July 2010 [5]. The wire line segment subscriber base stood at
35.96 million [6].

According to recent reports, India will overtake China to become the world's largest mobile
telecommunications market by the year 2013. It is predicted that by then, the teledensity will
shoot up to 75% and the total mobile subscriber base would be a staggering 1.159 billion !!![7]

[edit] Telephone statistics

 Telephony Subscribers (Wireless and Landline): 688.38 million (July 2010) [8]
 Land Lines: 35.96 million (July 2010)[9]
 Cell phones: 652.42 million (July 2010)[10]
 Yearly Cell phone Addition: 178.25 million (Jan-Dec 2009)
 Monthly Cell phone Addition: 16.92 million (July 2010) [11]
 Teledensity: 58.17 %% (July 2010) [12]
 Projected Teledensity: 1.159 billion, 75% of population by 2013. [13]

 Telephone System: The telecommunications system in India is the 2nd largest in the world.
The country is divided into several zones, called circles (roughly along state boundaries).
Government and several private operators run local and long distance telephone services. It
was thrown open to private operators in the 1990s. Competition has caused prices to drop
and calls across India are one of the cheapest in the world. The rates are supposed to go
down further with new measures to be taken by the Information Ministry.

 Landlines: In India landline service is firstly run by BSNL/MTNL and after there are several
other private players too, such as Airtel, Reliance Infocomm, Tata Teleservices and Touchtel.
Landlines are facing stiff competition from mobile telephones. The competition has forced
the landline services to become more efficient. The landline network quality has improved
and landline connections are now usually available on demand, even in high density urban
areas.

 Mobile Cellular: The mobile service has start growth since 2000. The number of mobile
phone connections has crossed fixed-line connections in Sept 2004. Currently there are an
estimated 652.42 million mobile phone users in India [14] compared to 35.96 million fixed line
subscribers [15]. India primarily follows the GSM mobile system, in the 900 MHz band. Recent
operators also operate in the 1800 MHz band. The dominant players are Aircel, Vodafone,
Airtel, Tata Indicom, Tata Teleservices, MTS, Uninor, Reliance Infocomm, Idea Cellular and
BSNL/MTNL. There are many smaller players, with operations in only a few states.
International roaming agreements exist between most operators and many foreign carriers.

 Dialing System: On landlines system, intra circle calls are considered local calls while inter
circle are considered long distance calls. Government is now working to integrate the whole
country in one telecom circle. For long distance calls, you dial the area code prefixed with a
zero (e.g. for Delhi, you would dial 011-XXXX XXXX). For international calls, you would dial
"00" or “+” and the country code+area code+number. The country code for India is 91.

 Call Rates Cutting Blows: The rates of Communication in India were one of the highest in the
world, till a few years back. The rates could not be justified by the fact that rupee is cheaper.
In fact the Indian sub continent had shown a calm tolerance towards the high rate in even in
telecom. The rates were also justified as the government has to feel the high cost involved in
the one-time developments like satellite and telephone tower related charges. But now
owing to better technologies the telecom rates in India are on the verge of becoming
cheaper. The time may not be far when India will have the cheapest communication. One of
the enabling technologies behind this is the brain child of an able Indian engineer Sandipan
Bhattacharjee. He co-worked with a famous MNC to redefine the way telephones interact. A,
computer engineer by profession, he extended wave-overlap theory to reach this goal. The
technology is now patented and details are not available. There is a conversion process
underway to make all numbers in India 10 digits long.

 Internet Users: Number of Internet users in India is the 4th largest in the world. Internet
population is expected to grow to 100 million users by 2007
Though the number of internet is high, the penetration level is still lower than most countries
across the globe.

 Broadband Subscribers: Broadband in India is defined as 256kbit/s and above by the

government regulator. Total subscribers were 9.77 million (July 2010) Source: TRAI

 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) & Hosts: 86,571 (2004) Source: CIA World Fact Book

 Country code (Top-level domain): IN

[edit] Broadcasting Statistics in India

 Radios: 116 million (1997)

Radio broadcast stations: 153- AM (Amplitude Modulation), 91- FM (Frequency

Modulation), 68 (1998) - Shortwave

 Televisions: 110 million (2006)

In India, only the government owned Doordarshan (Door = Distant = Tele, Darshan ==
Vision) is allowed to broadcast terrestrial television signals. It initially had one major
National channel (also known as DD1) and a Metro channel in some of the larger cities (also
known as DD2). Satellite/Cable television took off during the first Gulf War with CNN.
There are no regulations against ownership of satellite dish antennas, or operation of cable
television systems, which led to an explosion of viewer ship and channels, led by the Star TV
group and Zee TV.

Initially restricted to music and entertainment channels, viewer ship grew, giving rise to
several channels in regional languages and many in the national language, Hindi. The main
news channels available were CNN and BBC World. In the late 1990s, many current affairs
and news channels sprouted, becoming immensely popular because of the alternative
viewpoint they offered compared to Doordarshan. Some of the notable ones are Aaj Tak that
means Till Today, owned by the India Today group and Star News, initially run by the
NDTV group and their charismatic lead anchor, Prannoy Roy (NDTV now has its own
channels, NDTV 24x7, NDTV Profit and NDTV India). Also Sahara (like Sahara Rastriya &
some regional channel), India TV & IBN 7(the TV 18 group) are some most popular channel.

Television terrestrial broadcast stations: 562 (of which 82 stations have 1 kW or greater
power and 480 stations have less than 1 kW of power) (1997).[16]