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Telecommunications in India For the past decade or so, telecommunica- tion activities have gained momentum in India. Efforts have been made from both governmental and non-governmental plat- forms to enhance the infrastructure. The idea is to help modern telecommunication techno- logies to serve all segments of India’s cultur- ally diverse society, and to transform it into a country of technologically aware people. Modern growth A large population, low telephony penetra- tion levels, and a rise in consumers’ income and spending owing to strong economic growth have helped make India the fastest- growing telecom market in the world. The first and largest operator is the state-owned incumbent BSNL, which is also the 7th largest telecom company in the world in terms of its number of subscribers.[1] BSNL was created by corporatization of the erstwhile DTS (Department of Telecommunic- ation Services), a government unit respons- ible for provision of telephony services. Sub- sequently, after the telecommunication policies were revised to allow private operat- ors, companies such as Bharti Telecom, Tata Indicom, Vodafone, MTNL, Idea,Vodafone and BPL have entered the space. major oper- ators in India. However, rural India still lacks strong infrastructure. In 2007, an article by Businessweek magazine reported that India’s mobile phone market is the fastest growing in the world, with companies adding some 6 million new customers a month. The total number of telephones in the country crossed the 300 million mark on June 18 2008[2]. The overall tele-density has in- creased to 36.98% in March 2009[3].[4] In the wireless segment, 15.87 million subscribers have been added in March 2009. The total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA & WLL (F)) base is more than 391.76 million now. The wireline segment subscriber base stood at 38.22 million with a decline of 0.13 million in October 2008.[5] History Telecom in the real sense means transfer of information between two distant points in space. The popular meaning of telecom al- ways involves electrical signals and nowadays people 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. Introduction of telegraph The postal and telecom sectors had a slow and uneasy start in India. In 1850, the first experimental electric telegraph Line was started between Kolkata and Diamond Har- bor. In 1851, it was opened for the British East India Company. The Posts and Tele- graphs department occupied a small corner of the Public Works Department,[6] at that time. Construction of 4,000 miles (6,400 km) of telegraph lines connecting Kolkata (Cal- cutta) and Peshawar in the north via Agra, Mumbai (Bombay) through Sindwa Ghats, and Chennai in the south, as well as Ootacamund and Bangalore was started in November 1853. Dr. William O’Shaughnessy, who pioneered telegraph and telephone in In- dia, belonged to the Public Works Depart- ment. He tried his level best for the develop- ment of telecom through out this period. A separate department was opened in 1854 when telegraph facilities were opened to the public. Introduction of the telephone In 1880, two telephone companies namely The Oriental Telephone Company Ltd. and The Anglo-Indian Telephone Company Ltd. approached the Government of India to es- tablish telephone exchanges in India. The permission was refused on the grounds that the establishment of telephones was a Government monopoly and that the Govern- ment itself would undertake the work. By 1881, the Government changed its earlier de- cision and a licence was granted to the Ori- ental Telephone Company Limited of England From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Telecommunications in India 1 for opening telephone exchanges at Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai (Madras) and Ahmedabad. January 28, 1882, is a Red Letter Day in the history of telephone in India. On this day Ma- jor E. Baring, Member of the Governor Gen- eral of India’s Council declared open the Telephone Exchange in Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai. The exchange at Kolkata named "Central Exchange" was opened at third floor of the building at 7, Council House Street. The Central Telephone Exchange had 93 number of subscribers. Bombay also wit- nessed the opening of Telephone Exchange in 1882. Further developments • 1902 - First wireless telegraph station established between Saugor Islands and Sandheads. • 1907 - First Central Battery of telephones introduced in Kanpur. • 1913-1914 - First Automatic Exchange installed in Shimla. • July 23, 1927 - Radio-telegraph system between the UK and India, with beam stations at Khadki and Daund, inaugurated by Lord Irwin by exchanging greetings with the King of England. • 1933 - Radiotelephone system inaugurated between the UK and India. • 1953 - 12 channel carrier system introduced. • 1960 - First subscriber trunk dialing route commissioned between Kanpur and Lucknow. • 1975 - First PCM system commissioned between Mumbai City and Andheri telephone exchanges. • 1976 - First digital microwave junction introduced. • 1979 - First optical fibre system for local junction commissioned at Pune. • 1980 - First satellite earth station for domestic communications established at Secunderabad, A.P.. • 1983 - First analog Stored Program Control exchange for trunk lines commissioned at Mumbai. • 1984 - C-DOT established for indigenous development and production of digital exchanges. • 1985 - First mobile telephone service started on non-commercial basis in Delhi. While all the major cities and towns in the country were linked with telephones during the British period, the total number of tele- phones in 1948 was only around 80,000. Even after independence, growth was ex- tremely slow. The telephone was a status symbol rather than being an instrument of utility. The number of telephones grew leis- urely 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 innovative steps were taken from time to time, as for example introduc- tion of the telex service in Mumbai in 1953 and commissioning of the first [subscriber trunk dialing] route between Delhi and Kan- pur in 1960, the first waves of change were set going by Sam Pitroda in the eighties.[7] He brought in a whiff of fresh air. The real transformation in scenario came with the an- nouncement of the National Telecom Policy in 1994.[8] India, emerging as a ma- jor player In 1975, the Department of Telecom (DoT) was separated from P&T. DoT was respons- ible for telecom services in entire country un- til 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 Liberalisa- tion-Privatization-Globalization policy. There- fore, 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 October 01, 2000 and named it as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). Many private operators, such as Reliance India Mobile, Tata Telecom, Vodafone, BPL, Bharti, Idea etc., successfully entered the high potential Indian telecom market. Liberalisation of telcommunica- tions 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 in- volvement of foreign players. Due to this From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Telecommunications in India 2 political background it was very difficult to bring about liberalization in telecommunica- tions. When a bill was in parliament a major- ity 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 opposition from leaders of the opposite political party. 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, un- der the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi, many public sector organizations were set up like the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) , VSNL and MTNL. Many technological devel- opments took place in this regime but still foreign players were not allowed to particip- ate in the telecommunications business.[9] The demand for telephones was ever in- creasing. It was during this period that the P.N Rao led government introduced the na- tional 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 ven- tures between state owned telecom compan- ies and international players. But still com- plete 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 in- volved in technology transfer, and not policy making.[9] 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 in- stead liberalized the local services, taking the opposite political parties into confidence and assuring foreign involvement in the long dis- tance business after 5 years. The country was divided into 20 telecommunication circles for basic telephony and 18 circles for mobile ser- vices. These circles were divided into category A, B and C depending on the value of the revenue in each circle. The govern- ment threw open the bids to one private com- pany 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 pro- vider. 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.[9] After 1995 the government set up TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) which reduced the interference of Govern- ment in deciding tariffs and policy making. The DoT opposed this. The political powers changed in 1999 and the new government under the leadership of A.B Vajpayee was more pro-reforms and introduced better lib- eralization policies. They split DoT in two- one policy maker and the other service pro- vider (DTS) which was later renamed as BSNL. The proposal of raising the stake of foreign investors from 49% to 74% was rejec- ted 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 fi- nally took 25% stake in VSNL.[9] This was a gateway to many foreign in- vestors 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 compan- ies. 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. Growth of mobile technology India has become one of the fastest-growing mobile markets in the world.[10] The mobile services were commercially launched in August 1995 in India. In the initial 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 the number of proactive initiatives taken by From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Telecommunications in India 3 regulator and licensor, the monthly mobile subscriber additions increased to around 2 million per month in the year 2003-04 and 2004-05. Although mobile telephones followed the New Telecom Policy 1994, growth was tardy in the early years because of the high price of hand sets as well as the high tariff structure of mobile telephones. The New Telecom Policy in 1999, the industry heralded several pro consumer initiatives. Mobile subscriber additions started picking up. The number of mobile phones added throughout the country in 2003 was 16 million, followed by 22 million in 2004, 32 million in 2005 and 65 million in 2006. The only country with more mobile phones than India with 246 million mobile phones is China – 408 million. [11] India has opted for the use of both the GSM (global system for mobile communica- tions) and CDMA (code-division multiple ac- cess) technologies in the mobile sector. In ad- dition to landline and mobile phones, some of the companies also provide the WLL service. The mobile tariffs in India have also be- come lowest in the world. A new mobile con- nection can be activated with a monthly com- mitment of US$0.15 only. In 2005 alone 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] In April 2008 the Indian Department of Telecom (DoT) has directed all mobile phone service users to disconnect the usage of un- branded Chinese mobile phones that do not have International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers, because they 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 April 30.[14] Revenue and growth The total revenue in the telecom service sec- tor was Rs. 86,720 crore in 2005-06 as against Rs. 71, 674 crore in 2004-2005, regis- tering a growth of 21%. The total investment in the telecom services sector reached Rs. 200,660 crore in 2005-06, up from Rs. 178,831 crore in the previous fiscal.[15] Telecommunication is the lifeline of the rapidly growing Information Technology in- dustry. Internet subscriber base has risen to 6.94 million in 2005- 2006. Out of this 1.35 million were broadband connections.[16] 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.[17] It is difficult to ascertain fully the employ- ment 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[18] 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 $500 million in 2006 to a whopping $10 billion by 2009.[19] Sectors Telephone Until recently, only the PSU’s BSNL and MTNL were allowed to provide Basic Phone Service through copper wires in India. MTNL is operating in Delhi and Mumbai only and all other parts are covered by BSNL. However private operators have now entered the fray, although their focus is largely on the cellular business which is growing rapidly. Tele- phony Subscribers (Wireless and Land- line): 400.05 million (Jan 2009) Cellphones: 362.3 million (Jan 2009)[5] [20] Land Lines: 37.75 million (Jan 2009) Yearly Cellphone Addition: 113.26 mil- lion (2007)[21] Monthly Cellphone Addition: 15.41 mil- lion (Jan 2009) Teledensity: 34.5% (Jan 2009) Projected teledensity: 500 million, 40% of population by 2010. [22] Broadband connection: 6.22 million (March 2009) "Present scenerio" In the fixed line arena, BSNL and MTNL are the incum- bents in their respective areas of operation and continue to enjoy the dominant service From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Telecommunications in India 4 provider status in the domain of fixed line services. For example BSNL controls 79% of fixed line share in the country. On the other hand, in the mobile tele- phony space, Airtel controls 21.4% sub- scriber base followed by Reliance with 20.3%, BSNL with 18.6%, Vodafone with 14.7% subscriber base (as per June 2005 data).[23][24] Following list shows the GSM subscriber figure till Jan 2009 1 Bharti Airtel 88382758 33.04% 2 Vodafone Essar 63340024 23.68% 3 BSNL 42673357 15.95% 4 IDEA 40016153 14.96% 5 Aircel 16761397 6.27% 6 Reliance Telecom 10353841 3.87% 8 MTNL 4003807 1.50% 9 BPL 2007303 0.75% All India 267538640 Telephone system: The Mobile telecom- munications 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). Govern- ment and several private players run local and long distance telephone services. Com- petition 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] Landlines: Landline service in India is primarily run by BSNL/MTNL and Reliance Infocomm though there are several other private players too, such as Touchtel and Tata Teleservices. Landlines are facing stiff competition from mobile telephones. The competition has forced the landline services to become more efficient. The landline net- work quality has improved and landline con- nections are now usually available on de- mand, even in high density urban areas. Mobile Cellular: The mobile service has seen phenomenal growth since 2000. In September 2004, the number of mobile phone connections have crossed fixed-line connections. Currently there are an estim- ated 201.29 million mobile phone users in In- dia compared to 39.73 million fixed line sub- scribers. India primarily follows the GSM mo- bile system, in the 900 MHz band. Recent op- erators also operate in the 1800 MHz band. The dominant players are Airtel, Reliance Infocomm, Vodafone, Idea cellular and BSNL/MTNL. There are many smaller play- ers, with operations in only a few states. In- ternational roaming agreements exist between most operators and many foreign carriers. Dialling System: On landlines, intra circle calls are considered local calls while inter circle are considered long distance calls. Cur- rently Government is 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 calling Delhi, you would dial 011-XXXX XXXX). For interna- tional calls, you would dial "00" and the coun- try code+area code+number. The country code for India is 91. Call Rates Slashed: Communication rates in India fell sharply after the year 2000 when infrastructure improvements and entry of many major players made Indian Telecom a highly competitive sector. There is a conversion process underway to make all numbers in India 10 digits long. Internet The number of broadband connections in in- dia have seen a continous growth since the beginning of 2006. At the end of August 2008, total broadband connections in the country have reached 4.73 million. However the definition of broadband is pretty con- strained in India compared to other coun- tries. A 256 kbit/s always on connection is the definition of broadband in India com- pared to 2 Mbit/s in other countries. However most ISPs,especially the Govern- ment managed companies are now offering speeds up to 2 Mbit/s. [27] [3] BSNL, Sify, MTNL, STPI, Airtel, Netcom, Reliance Communications and Hathway are some of the major ISPs in India. TRAI has defined broadband as 256 kbit/s or higher. However, many ISPs advertise their service as broadband but don’t offer the suggested speeds. Broadband in India is more expensive as compared to Western Europe/United King- dom and United States. 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 TRAI. ADSL providers include: • Tata Indicom (VSNL) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Telecommunications in India 5 • MTNL/BSNL • Bharti Telecom (Airtel, Bharti Televentures) • Reliance Infocomm Because of the increase in ISPs and the qual- ity of service Qos, It became cheaper to call India from around the world. Many Indians today, studying or living all around the world, are using calling cards to India to speak with their families back home. It used to be much more expensive prior to 2002. Airtel and BSNL have launched 8 Mbit/s & Reliance Communication offers 10 Mb/s broadband internet services in selected areas recently . For home users , the maximum speed for unlimited downloads is 1 Mbit/s , available for USD 60 (roughly , with taxes) Internet Users: 60,000,000 (September 2007) Source: Internet World Stats Broadband Subscribers: Broadband in India is defined as 256 kbit/s and above by the government regulator. Total subscribers were 2.3 million (April 2007) Source: TRAI 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.[28] Though the number of internet users is high, the penetration level is still lower than most countries across the globe. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) & Hosts: 86,571 (2004) Source: CIA World FactBook Country code (Top-level domain): IN See also: List of ISPs in India See also: Internet censorship in India Broadcasting Radio broadcast stations: AM 153, FM 91, shortwave 68 (1998) Radios: 116 million (1997) Television terrestrial broadcast sta- tions: 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, Dar- shan == Vision) is allowed to broadcast ter- restrial 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 televi- sion systems, which led to an explosion of viewership and channels, led by the Star TV group and Zee TV. Initially restricted to mu- sic and entertainment channels, viewership grew, giving rise to several channels in re- gional 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 pop- ular 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, 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. 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 coaxi- al cable networks connected to fixed loca- tions 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 gen- eration 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 intens- ive 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 Ex- changes 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 ex- tensive optical fibre network, using Internet From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Telecommunications in India 6 Protocol and offering a variety of services and the availability of open platforms for ser- vice development, viz. the Next Generation Network, appears to be an attractive proposi- tion. Fibre network can be easily converted to Next Generation network and then used for delivering multiple services at cheap cost. 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. Submarine cables • LOCOM linking Chennai to Penang, Malaysia • India-UAEcable linking Mumbai to Al Fujayrah, UAE. • SEA-ME-WE 2, SEA-ME-WE 3, SEA-ME- WE 4 - (South East Asia-Middle East- Western Europe) with landing sites at Cochin and Mumbai. • Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) with a landing site at Mumbai (2000). See also • TRAI External links • Telecom Regulatory Authority of India • Wireless Planning & Coordination Wing • Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd • 3G Services inaugurated in India • Telecom Industry Coverage • Indian Telephone Industries Limited • Telecommunications Consultants of India Limited • Department of Telecommuincations, Government of India • Measurments and Controls India Ltd. • India Telecom report • Cellular Operators Association of India • ENFORCEMENT AND RESOURCES AND MONITORING CELL • Aegis School of Business and Telecommunication References [1] BSNL [2] http://www.ibef.org/industry/ telecommunications.aspx [3] http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/ trai/upload/PressReleases/611/ pr24nov08no89.pdf [4] Telecom Regulatory Authority of India,Information note to the Press (Press Release No. 61 / 2007), 20 Jun 2007 [5] ^ [1] [6] Public Works Department [7] BSNL [8] Indian Government [9] ^ Dash, Kishore. "Veto Players and the Deregulation of State-Owned Enterprises: The Case of Telecommunications in India" (PDF). http://www.thunderbird.edu/wwwfiles/ publications/magazine/fall2005/pdf-files/ Telecom_RevJune27AS__1.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-06-26. [10]Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, press release no. 89 /2006, 12 September 2006 [11] Indian Cell Population: 246 Million and Counting - GigaOM [12]TRAI [13]http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ News/News-By-Industry/Telecom/GSM- CDMA-players-maintain-subscriber- growth-momentum/articleshow/ 4281903.cms [14]http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20090404/ 868/ttc-dot-directs-ban-on-usage-of- chinese.html [15]Press Release no. 60/2006 issued on 28 June 2006 by TRAI [16]Press Release No. no. 60/2006 issued on 28 June 2006 by TRAI [17]Hindu Net [18]Press Release No. no. 35/2006 issued on 10 April 2006 by TRAI [19] (Music, games to drive mobile VAS growth) [20] [2] [21] India adds 83 mn mobile users in a year [22]Finance News on Yahoo! India [23]TRAI Report [24]Press Release [25]The death of STD [26]Free broadband, rent-free landlines likely: Maran [27]Status Paper on Broadband by Trai From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Telecommunications in India 7 [28]Zinnov [4] Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_India" Categories: Communications by country, Communications in India, Telecommunications in India This page was last modified on 16 May 2009, at 18:01 (UTC). All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) tax- deductible nonprofit charity. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Telecommunications in India 8
