The Republic of India possesses a diversified communications system that links all parts of the country by Internet, telephone, telegraph, radio, and television. None of the telecommunications forms are as prevalent or as advanced as those in modern Western countries, but the system includes some of the most sophisticated technology in the world and constitutes a foundation for further development of a modern network. India has the world's second-largest mobile phone users with over 881 million as of October 2011.[1] It has the world's fourth-largest Internet users with over 100 million as of December 2010.[2] India has come to be regarded as the world's most competitive and one of the fastest growing telecom markets.[3][4]
The industry is expected to reach a size of 344,921 crore (US$65.53 billion) by 2012 at a growth rate of over 26 per cent, and generate employment opportunities for about 10 million people during the same period. According to analysts, the sector would create direct employment for 2.8 million people and for 7 million indirectly.[5] The total revenue of the Indian telecom sector grew by 7% to 283,207 crore (US$53.81 billion) for 2010-11 financial year, while revenues from telecom equipment segment stood at 117,039 crore (US$22.24 billion).[6]
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Telecom in the real sense means the transfer of information between two distant points in space. The popular meaning of telecom always involves electrical signals and as a result, people often exclude postal or any other raw telecommunication methods from its meaning. Therefore, the history of Indian telecom can be started with the introduction of telegraph.
The Indian postal and telecom sectors saw a slow and uneasy start. In 1850, the first experimental electric telegraph line was started between Kolkata and Diamond Harbour. In 1851, it was opened for the use of the British East India Company. The Posts and Telegraphs department occupied a small corner of the Public Works Department,[7] at that time.
Subsequently, the construction of 4,000 miles (6,400 km) of telegraph lines connecting Kolkata (then Calcutta) and Peshawar in the north along with Agra, Mumbai (then Bombay) through Sindwa Ghats, and Chennai (then Madras) in the south, as well as Ootacamund and Bangalore was started in November 1853. Dr.William O'Shaughnessy, who pioneered the telegraph and telephone in India, belonged to the Public Works Department, and worked towards the development of telecom throughout this period. A separate department was opened in 1854 when telegraph facilities were opened to the public.
In 1880, two telephone companies namely The Oriental Telephone Company Ltd. and The Anglo-Indian Telephone Company Ltd. approached the Government of India to establish telephone exchanges in India. The permission was refused on the grounds that the establishment of telephones was a Government monopoly and that the Government itself would undertake the work. In 1881, the Government later reversed its earlier decision and a licence was granted to the Oriental Telephone Company Limited of England for opening telephone exchanges at Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and Ahmedabad and the first formal telephone service was established in the country.[8] On the 28th January 1882, Major E. Baring, Member of the Governor General of India's Council declared open the Telephone Exchanges in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. The exchange in Calcutta named the "Central Exchange", was opened at third floor of the building at 7, Council House Street, with a total of 93 subscribers. Later that year, Bombay also witnessed the opening of a telephone exchange.
While all the major cities and towns in the country were linked with telephones during the British period, the total number of telephones in 1948 numbered only around 80,000. Post independence, growth remained slow because the telephone was seen more as a status symbol rather than being an instrument of utility. The number of telephones grew leisurely to 980,000 in 1971, 2.15 million in 1981 and 5.07 million in 1991, the year economic reforms were initiated in the country.
While certain measures were taken to boost the telecom industry from time to time, (for example introduction of the telex service in Mumbai in 1953 and commissioning of the first Subscriber trunk dialling route between Delhi and Kanpur and between Lucknow and Kanpur in 1960), the first waves of change were set going by Sam Pitroda in the eighties.[9] The real transformation in scenario came with the announcement of the National Telecom Policy in 1994.[10]
In 1975, the Department of Telecom (DoT) was separated from Indian Post & Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service. 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.
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 Non-resident Indian 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.[11]
The demand for telephones was ever increasing. It was during this period that the Narsimha 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.[11]
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.[11]
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.[11]
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.[12]
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.[13] 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.[14] 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 881 million subscribers as of October 2011.
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.
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.[15] 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.[16][17][18]
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.[19]
The total revenue in the telecom service sector was 86,720 crore (US$16.5 billion) in 2005-06 as against 71,674 crore (US$13.6 billion) in 2004-2005, registering a growth of 21%.estimted revenue of FY'2011 is Rs.835 crore (US$ 19 Bn Approx).The total investment in the telecom services sector reached 200,660 crore (US$38.1 billion) in 2005-06, up from 178,831 crore (US$34 billion) in the previous fiscal.[20] Telecommunication is the lifeline of the rapidly growing Information Technology industry. Internet subscriber base has risen to more than a 100 million in 2010.[21] Out of this 11.47 million were broadband connections. More than a billion people use the Internet globally. Under the Bharat Nirman Programme, the Government of India will ensure that 66,822 revenue villages in the country, which have not yet been provided with a Village Public Telephone (VPT), will be connected. However doubts have been raised about what it would mean for the poor in the country.[22]
It is difficult to ascertain fully the employment potential of the telecom sector but the enormity of the opportunities can be gauged from the fact that there were 3.7 million Public Call Offices in December 2005[23] up from 2.3 million in December 2004.
The Total Revenue of Indian Telecom Services company is likely to exceed Rs 200000 Cr ( US$ 44 Bn approx) for FY 11-12 based on FY 10-11 nos and latest quarterly results. These are consolidated nos including foreign operation of Bharti Airtel. The major contributions to this revenue are as follows: Bharti Airtel 65,060 Reliance Comm 31,468 Idea Cellular 16,936 Tata Comm 11,931 MTNL 4,380 TTML 2,248 BSNL 32,045 Voda 18,376 TataTeleservice 9,200 Aircel 7,968 SSTL 600 Uninor 660 Loop 560 Stel 60 HFCL 204 Videocon Telecom 254 DB Etisalat/ Allianz 47 Grand Total Rs 201,997 Crs contributed by Sanjay Banka, FCA
| Communications in India | ||
|---|---|---|
| Television broadcast stations (2009) | 1,400 | |
| Radio broadcast stations (1997) | 800 | |
| Fixed lines (2011) | 33.19 million | |
| Mobile phones (2011) | 881.40 million | |
| Internet access | ||
| Percent household access (total), 2010 | 8.5% of households (100 million) | |
| Percent broadband household access | 1.0% of households (12.69 million) | |
| Internet Service Providers (2010) | 180 | |
| country code top-level domain | .in | |
The primary regulator of telecommunications in India is the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). It closely regulates all of the industries mentioned below with the exception of newspapers and the Internet service provider industry. The telecommunications industry in India is dominated by private-sector and two state-run businesses. Most companies were formed by a recent revolution and restructuring launched within a decade, directed by Ministry of Communications and IT, Department of Telecommunications and Minister of Finance. Since then, most companies gained 2G, 3G and 4G licenses and engaged fixed-line, mobile and internet business in India. On landlines, intra-circle calls are considered local calls while inter-circle are considered long distance calls. Foreign Direct Investment policy which increased the foreign ownership cap from 49% to 74%. 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. Several international fiber-optic links include those to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Russia, and Germany. Some major telecom operators in India include Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel, BSNL, MTNL, Reliance Communications, TATA Teleservices, Infotel, MTS, Uninor, TATA DoCoMo, Videocon, Augere, Tikona Digital.
Telephone Subscribers (Wireless and Landline): 914.59 million (October 2011)
Land Lines: 33.19 million (October 2011)
Cell phones: 881.40 million (October 2011)
Monthly Cell phone Addition: 7.79 million (October 2011)
Teledensity: 76.03 % (October 2011)
Projected Teledensity: 1 billion, 84% of population by 2012.[24]
With a subscriber base of more than 851 million, the Mobile telecommunications system in India is the second largest in the world and it was thrown open to private players in the 1990s. GSM was comfortably maintaining its position as the dominant mobile technology with 80% of the mobile subscriber market, but CDMA seemed to have stabilised its market share at 20% for the time being. By March 2010 the country had 584 million mobile subscribers, up from 350 million just 15 months earlier. The mobile market was continuing to expand at an annual rate in excess of 40% coming into 2010.
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.[25] The rates are supposed to go down further with new measures to be taken by the Information Ministry.[26] 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. The mobile subscriber base has grown by a factor of over a hundred and thirty, from 5 million subscribers in 2001 to over 881 million subscribers as of October 2011. 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. The government allowed Mobile number portability (MNP) which enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another.[27] India is divided into 22 telecom circles.
A list of states (including the metros Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai in their respective states and excluding National Capital Territory Delhi) with the largest subscriber base as of Mar 03rd 2011[update] is given below
Until the New Telecom Policy was announced in 1999, only the Government-owned BSNL and MTNL were allowed to provide land-line phone services through copper wire in India with MTNL operating in Delhi and Mumbai and BSNL servicing all other areas of the country. Due to the rapid growth of the cellular phone industry in India, landlines are facing stiff competition from cellular operators. This has forced land-line service providers to become more efficient and improve their quality of service. Land-line connections are now also available on demand, even in high density urban areas. India has over 35 million main line customers.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 180 (2010)
Internet hosts: 4,536,000;
Internet users: 100 million;
Broadband Internet users: 12.98 million (October 2011)[28]
Internet access in India is largely provided by the private sector and two state-run companies and is available in a variety of forms, using a variety of technologies, at a wide range of speeds and costs. The country has the world's fourth largest Internet users with over 100 million users (of whom 40 million use the Internet via mobile phones) as of December 2010.[29] However, the Internet penetration in India is one of the lowest in the world and only accounts for 8.4% of the population compared to OECD counties where average penetration rate is over 50%.[2][30] The number of broadband Internet subscribers in India has started to become more significant, having more than doubled in the two-year period to end-2009. DSL, whilst holding slightly more than 75% of the local broadband market, was steadily losing market share to other non-DSL broadband platforms, especially to wireless broadband platforms. The 3G auction was followed by an equally high profile auction of 4G spectrum that set the scene for a competitive and invigorated wireless broadband market.
The growth in number of broadband connections in India has accelerated since 2006. As of October 2011, total broadband Internet connections in India had reached 12.98 million constituting 1.0% of the population.[28] India has one of the lowest penetrations of broadband connectivity in the world.[31][32]
A number of private Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offer services in India, many with their own local loop and gateway infrastructures. BSNL and MTNL have continued to dominate the ISP market because of their existing massive copper infrastructure in the last-mile across the nation. An estimated 60% of Internet users were still regularly accessing the Internet via the country’s more than 10,000 cybercafes.
According to International Telecommunication Union, the international average broadband speed is at 5.6 Mbps, whereas in India the average speed hoovers at 256 kbit/s which is the minimum speed set by TRAI. The government declared 2007 to be “the year of broadband.” Four years later, Indian broadband failed to deliver a download speeds of which other developed nations delivers. South Korea led the list with an average of 43 Mbit/s, followed by Japan (10.6 Mbit/s) and United States (4.6 Mbit/s).[33][34]
India broadband growth is hampered by various challenges, including a complicated tariff structure, metered billing, higher charges for right of way and absence of local-loop unbundling.
FTTB services are currently supplied in Hyderabad by Beam Telecom, offering a variety of plans for home users up to 6 Mbit/s, "power users" up to 20 Mbit/s and enterprises up to 30 Mbit/s. Beam Telecom have also launched fristever FTTH Solution in Hyderabad in three major townships by end of 2010, they have planned to complete FTTH setup in 20 upcoming townships by the end of 2011.
Triple-play FTTH services are due to be launched in 2011 by Hayai Broadband. Services will be offered via an entirely Passive Optical Network, allowing speeds of 100+ Mbit/s to the Internet and 1000+ Mbit/s (1 Gbit/s) within its own network. The coverage area will include most suburbs in Mumbai and the company has announced intentions to spread to other cities and even rural areas. It has coverage ready in the Northern Suburbs of Mumbai based on a UTStarcom platform, however the company expects to replace this with a platform by either Alcatel Lucent or Motorola.
Radio broadcast stations: AM 153, FM 91, shortwave 68 (1998), Domestica Radio, Broadcasting
Radios: 116 million (1997)
Television broadcast stations: 1,400 (of which 82 stations have 1 kW or greater power and 480 stations have less than 1 kW of power) (2009)
Televisions: 110 million (2006)
In India, only the government owned Doordarshan has the license for terrestrial television broadcast. Over the years, Doordarshan services have grown from a single national channel to six national and eleven regional channels.
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, especially 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 and NDTV India).New Delhi TeleVision.
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 and 4G 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. Most telecom companies won 3G and 4G licences in a competitive auction. They have now rolled out their third-generation (3G) mobile services since early 2010, but most companies will officially launch fourth-generation (4G) mobile services based on LTE or Long Term Evolution technology from 2012.
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.