Indian Telecom Sector Became the Second Largest Telephone Network in the World

The Indian telecom sector became the second largest telephone network in the world, after China by registering exceptional growth during last nine years. The reasons for growth of telecom sector were reform measures by the Government of India, active participation of the private sector as well as wireless technology.

National Telecom Policy-2012 (NTP-2012) was announced with an objective to maximise public good by facilitating reliable, secure and affordable telecommunication as well as broadband services in India. When NTP 2012 was implemented, a range of telephonic connections increased considerably. The telephone connections in India till January 2013 were 893.14 million. The rural telephone connections increased by around 10 million in the year 2012. Overall, the teledensity was 73.07 percent till January 2013. Rural teledensity crossed the 40 percent mark. Comparatively, in March 2004, the overall teledensity was 7.04 percent while the rural teledensity was 1.7 percent.

In case of mobile penetration, the preference of the use of wireless telephony increased considerably. As on 31 March 2012, the wireless telephones increased from 96.62 percent to 96.74 percent by June end 2012. The share of landline phones increased from 3.38 percent to 3.44 percent from April to December 2012.

The wireless subscriber base also increased from 33.6 million in March 2004 to 864.72 million till December 2012. The average tariff for every outgoing call per minute for GSM services went down from 2.89 Rupees in March 2004 to 47 paisa in December 2012.