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The telecommunications industry in India is still in its infancy. Many locals don't have telephony and other simple levels of telecommunication. Though, India has made drastic strides in the development of telecommunications within the country. Their state owned infrastructure has been abysmal. The infrastructure had high prices, bad performance, and many outages. It wasn't until 1991 and then 1994 that much of this changed.
The Indian Telegraph Act was put in place in 1885 under British rule. (3) The Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act was put in place in 1933. (3) These were the original legislation and were later reformed in the 1980's. (3) Deregulation took place during this time. There was a high powered telecom commission set in action in 1989. (3)
The new economic policy was formed in 1991. The national telecom policy was formed in 1994 (ntp-1994). (3) In later reforms the Indian government announced a new telecom policy in 1999. (3) The telecom policy of 1999 helped pave the way for affordable and effective communications for regular citizens. India set out to achieve a teledensity of 7 by the year 2005 and 15 by the year 2010 and improve rural teledensity to the level of 4 by 2010. (3) India wished to have a competitive telecommunications sector on a global level.
India passed a communications convergence bill of 2001 to address new developments and converge many of the older policies and acts together. (3) In August 2001 India had introduced the communications converge bill in parliament. (3) India had the goal of establishing a national infrastructure for an information based society. India wanted to establish a regulatory framework for carrying content to customers. India established a single regulatory agency to be an authority over communication known as the 2001 Communications Commission of India. (3)
In 2002, India was the 8th largest telecom network in the world and 2nd largest amongst the developing countries after China. (14) In 2002 India had 38.18 million fixed telephone lines. (15) Now, in 2004 mobile phones account for more than 50 percent of the total phones and the private sector consists of 44 percent of the total phones. (15)
| Local | Open Market | VSNL |
| Domestic Long Distance | Open Market | VSNL, MTNL, DTS |
| International Communications | Open Market | Many |
Recent estimates of Teledensity:
| Number of telephone main lines (per 100 people) | 4.3 |
| Number of mobile subscribers (per 100 people) | 4.4 |
| Number of Internet users (per 100 people) | 1.5 |
| Number of personal computers (stock per 1,000 pop) | 12 |
Source: EIU Country Indicators, 2004 estimates.
(20)
There was a very recent announcement that India's teledensity had hit 11.7% which is a new high.(13) It is constantly changing as they develop more infrastructure to the rural areas that are consistantly lacking. Prices have become more competitive but are not low on an global level.
As we see here, pricing plays a major role:
| Item |
Price (US$) |
% of monthly personal disposable income |
Affordability rank |
| Telephone line, monthly rental (av) |
6.07 |
15.28 |
44 out of 49 |
| Telephone, charge per local call from home, 3 mins (av) |
0.03 |
0.07 |
37 out of 45 |
| Personal computer, 64 MB (av) |
1,049 |
2,639 |
47 out of 53 |
|
(20)
|
State-wise
Teledensity |
| |
Teledensity |
| URBAN |
RURAL |
TOTAL |
| Delhi |
30.2 |
0 |
26.9 |
| Punjab |
25.7 |
4.6 |
11.6 |
| Kerala |
23.7 |
7.9 |
11.1 |
| Andaman
& Nicobar |
15 |
7.7 |
9.6 |
| Maharashtra |
19.3 |
2.2 |
9 |
| Himachal
Pradesh |
39.6 |
5.4 |
8.4 |
| Tamil
Nadu |
15.2 |
2.1 |
7.8 |
| Gujarat |
17.8 |
2.5 |
7.4 |
| Karnataka |
15.8 |
2.4 |
6.5 |
| Haryana |
16.5 |
2.3 |
6.1 |
| Andhra
Pradesh |
16.5 |
2 |
5.6 |
| Uttaranchal |
12.6 |
1.3 |
4 |
| West
Bengal |
11.5 |
0.9 |
3.7 |
| Rajasthan |
11.3 |
1.3 |
3.4 |
| Madhya
Pradesh |
10.2 |
0.6 |
2.9 |
| North
East |
9.2 |
0.9 |
2.7 |
| Jammu
& Kashmir |
8.3 |
0.5 |
2.5 |
| Orissa |
11.3 |
0.9 |
2.2 |
| Uttar
Pradesh |
8.8 |
0.6 |
2.1 |
| Assam |
11.5 |
0.5 |
1.9 |
| Jharkand |
6.1 |
0.4 |
1.6 |
| Chattisgarh |
5.6 |
0.4 |
1.4 |
| Bihar |
9.3 |
0.5 |
1.3 |
| Total |
15.2 |
1.5 |
5 |
| *As
on 31 March 2003 |
Source:
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology |
|
(11)
Telecom is the second largest sector in India ahead of power and oil refineries. In 2004 there was broadband policy enacted to try and move internet penetration to households. PC's have already penetrated much middle and upper class house holds. The need for broadband and cellular has come around as well.
A look at the recent boom of cellular technologies shows that India has been quick to adapt.
| India: GSM cellular services: |
| |
New cellular services |
Outstanding cellular services |
| |
No. |
% change |
No. |
% change |
| 2003 |
| Oct |
1,040,000 |
133.9 |
19,346,000 |
115.5 |
| Nov |
1,380,000 |
83.1 |
20,726,000 |
113 |
| Dec |
1,266,000 |
68.8 |
21,992,000 |
109.8 |
| 2004 |
| Jan |
1,345,000 |
97.1 |
23,337,000 |
109.1 |
| Feb |
1,285,000 |
116.6 |
24,622,000 |
109.4 |
| Mar |
1,533,000 |
64.5 |
26,154,000 |
106.1 |
| Apr |
1,020,000 |
57.5 |
27,174,000 |
103.8 |
| May |
1,001,000 |
19.1 |
28,175,000 |
98.8 |
| Jun |
1,028,000 |
5.70 |
29,204,000 |
92.8 |
| Jul |
1,389,000 |
20.8 |
30,593,000 |
87.7 |
| Aug |
1,434,000 |
31.0 |
32,027,000 |
84.1 |
| Sep |
1,533,000 |
67.9 |
33,560,000 |
83.3 |
| Oct |
1,235,000 |
18.7 |
34,794,000 |
79.8 |
| |
| |
|
Apr-Oct |
|
Oct |
| 2003/04 |
6,659,000 |
161.5 |
19,346,000 |
115.5 |
| 2004/05 |
8,640,000 |
29.8 |
34,794,000 |
79.8 |
| |
| |
|
Apr-Mar |
|
Mar |
| 2003/04 |
13,467,000 |
115.2 |
26,154,000 |
106.1 |
|
| Source: Centre for Monitoring Indian
Economy. |
(20)
The overall outlook on the telecommunications infrastructure in India shows promise. They have continually grown out their infrastructure and set policy to promote further growth. They have made great strides in the form of better teledensity and internet penetration. Their main problem lies in access for the rural areas. Much of India is rural and these areas are not getting sufficient attention to provide them with the necessities in the ICT landscape.
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