The Indian telecom industry has experienced significant growth and changes over the past century. It began with the establishment of a telegraph department in 1854 and expanded with the addition of telephone services and the merger of postal and telegraph departments. Major organizational changes occurred in the 1980s with the creation of separate telecom and postal departments and companies like MTNL. The industry was opened to privatization and reforms in the 1990s, bringing new private operators and rapid expansion. As of 2009, India had over 525 million telephone subscribers across wireless and fixed-line networks, with continued strong monthly growth. The future is expected to see further growth to 700 million subscribers by 2012, fueled especially by expansion in rural areas and new technologies like 3G

1. Indian Telecom Journey
Bigger hit than any Bollywood movie

2. Topics
 The Journey so far!
 Where it stands today?
 What Next?

3. Organizational changes
 1854:A regular, separate department was opened, when
telegraph facilities were thrown open to the public.
 Dr. O'Shaughnessy was the first Superintendent of Electric
Telegraphs in India and later became the first Director
General.
 1914: World War I, Postal Department and the Telegraph
Department were amalgamated under a single Director-
General.
 1st April, 1950: In 1950 the number of Telephone
Exchanges absorbed from princely states was 196.
 The installed capacity of these 196 exchanges was 13,362
lines with 11,296 working connections.

4. Organizational changes
 1981:Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed contracts with of
France to merge with the state owned Telecom Company
(ITI), in an effort to set up 5,000,000 lines per year.
 January 1985: two separate Departments for the Posts and
the Telecommunications were created.
 1986 : Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) was
created.
 1989:The Telecom Commission was constituted.
 January 1997: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)
was formed.
 1st October 2000:Department created BSNL, a new entity to
operate services in different parts of the country as a
public sector unit.

5. Policy Changes
 1986:Department reorganized the Telecommunication Circles
with the Secondary Switching Areas as basic units.
 1994 : First National Telecom Policy was introduced and the
sector was opened up for privatization.
 1998: First tariff order issued in –thus reforms effective from
1998.
 1999 : The second National Telecom Policy was introduced to
take the telecom sector to next level.
 2004 : The policy for Broadband was defined with the aim to
increase the internet penetration in India. Broadband was
define initially as 128 Kbps which was later changed to
256 kbps.

6. Market Changes
 1985: First mobile telephone service started on non-
commercial basis in Delhi.
 1994 : India was divided into 20 telecom circles and today we
have 23 circles categorized as Circle – A, B & C.
 1995: GSM entered India. Historic first cell phone-call was
made by Mobile Net-joint venture between Telstra (Australia)
& B.K. Modi group. First call was made by Jyoti Basu.
 1996: Tata Teleservices was the first to launch CDMA mobile
services in India with the Andhra Pradesh circle.
 The sector was liberalized and private mobile operators
began their journey.

7. Telecom India DailyTM
Telecom Growth

8. Topics
 The Journey so far!
 Where it stands today?
 What Next?

9. Indian Telecom Statistics
Indian Telecom Statistics Oct 09
Total telephone subscriber base 525.65
Over all Tele-density 44.87%
Fixed-line user base 37.25
Wireless user base
(GSM+CDMA+WLL(F)) 488.4
GSM Subscribers 355.25
CDMA Subscribers 133.15
Monthly additions (Wireline +
Wireless) 16.62
Monthly additions (Wireline) -0.02
Monthly additions (Wireless) 16.67
Broadband subscribers 7.4

10. Existing Operators
Service Providers Technology
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) GSM, CDMA & Fixed Line
Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel) GSM & Fixed Line
Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM) GSM, CDMA & Fixed Line
Vodafone Essar Limited (Vodafone-Essar) GSM
Idea Cellular Limited (Idea) GSM
Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) GSM, CDMA & Fixed Line
Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited (TTML) CDMA & Fixed Line
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) GSM, CDMA & Fixed Line
Aircel Cellular Limited (Aircel) GSM
Reliance Telecom GSM
Loop Mobile Limited (Loop mobile) GSM
HFCL Infotel Limited (HFCL) CDMA & Fixed Line

12. New Players
Name Operation Started
Datacom Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Not Yet
Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt. Ltd. Not Yet
Loop Telecom Private Ltd. T.N., Orissa, Karnataka, Kerala
Reliance Communications
Limited
GSM service launched in all new licensed
areas.
S Tel Ltd. Not Yet
Sistema Shyam Teleservices
T. N., Kerala, Kolkata, West Bengal and
Bihar.
Tata Teleservices Limited
Chennai, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, T.N.,
Andhra Pradesh
Unitech Wireless Pvt. Ltd. Not Yet

13. New Initiatives
 Reasons for high growth are changes or initiatives taken in
the recent years.
1. One Indian Plan launched in 2006 heated up the price war in
India.
2. New Licenses given by Government in 2008 added up in
ongoing competition – 120 new licenses awarded.
3. Lowest tarrifs in the world with local calls reaching 10
paise/min and STD tarrifs dropping to 50 paise/min from high
tarrifs of 17 Rs/min in 1994
4. Reduction in Handset prices has made mobile a common
weapon tool.

14. Topics
 The Journey so far!
 Where it stands today?
 What Next?

15. Market Forecast - 2012
 Total subscribers to reach 700 million.
 Wireless users will reach 640-650 million.
 Fixed line will dwindle around 45-50 million.
 Telecom services revenue will reach 54 USD billion.
 Rural sector will be the key driver with potential of increasing
tele-density from 15 % today to 40% in coming years.
 Data revolution to be fuelled by 3G & WiMAX with 25-30
million 3G subscribers and WiMAX touching user base of 8-10
million.
 Internet users to reach 45 million; Broadband users to reach
25-30 million and Mobile internet users to reach 196 million.

16. Innovation will be key
 New Innovative ideas and
services will hold the key
for telecom operators to
generate revenue and
sustain in this competitive
market.
 Convergence of Mobile,
fixed line & internet will
give rise to new services.
 Fixed Line will be saved
by Broadband, IPTV and
VoIP services.
 Mobile will see new
technologies like 3G, 4G
(LTE) and WiMAX.
Mobile VAS will evolve with new technologies
and an operator with good service portfolio will
command the market

17. Thanks!
By – Abhishek Rawat