26th August, 2010

The Indian Telecom sector has emerged as one of the fastest growing sectors in the world.  We have the second largest wireless network in world, with over 680 million connections. This has been achieved due to intense competition among the Telecom operators, leading to one of the most competitive Telecom tariffs in the world.

This growth in telecom sector is also contributing significantly to the economic growth of the country. As a result of liberalized FDI Policy, Indian Telecom Sector has emerged as third largest sector in country, in terms of FDI (after Services & Computer industry) with over US $ 9 billion Foreign Direct Investment till date, since April 2000.

In last five years, Indian Telecom Sector has witnessed transformation on all fronts. While Urban Tele-density has risen from 26% to 128%, Rural Tele-density has also increased significantly from 1.73% to 27%. Government of India has set an ambitious target of achieving rural Tele-density of 40% by 2012, i.e. addition of over 120 million connections need to be provided in rural India in next two years. VPT (Village Public telephones) have been already provided in 5.66 Lakh Villages, out of total 5.93 Lakh villages. Further, USOF is aiming at setting up 10,000 shareable BTS towers in remote areas this year.  

After announcement of Broadband Policy in Oct 2004, Broadband subscribers have now grown from 0.18 million to 9.45 million. Although, it is still lower than original target of 20 million (by Dec 2010), wireless broadband is now expected to take off as 3G/BWA network rollouts are expected soon, with recent concluded auction of 3G/ BWA Spectrum. To empower the common man in the rural/remote parts, Department has now set target of providing Broadband coverage for all 2.5 Lakh Gram Panchayats by  2012.  

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