Indian telecom is the fastest growing and second largest mobile
telecom market in the world, adding nearly 16 million subscribers
every month, with a total subscriber base of over 670 million at the end of July
2010. At these growth levels, the overall teledensity and broadband
subscription base in the sector has touched the 58% mark. During the last five
years, teledensity rose from 26% to over 125% in urban area, and it also
increased amazingly in rural India from 1.73% to 27%. Driven by various policy
initiatives, coupled with growth-oriented strategies taken by private players
and other stakeholders, the sector witnessed a complete transformation
in the last decade. The sector evolved from dial-tone to info-tone and now to
cloud computing with services and applications being delivered over the
internet grid. According to a global information technology research and advisory
firm, Gartner, the sector's revenue is expected to be more than $30 bn by
2013, and the penetration of mobile connections is projected to reach 72.5%
by 2012 and 82% by 2014.
More importantly, the sector has fueled inclusive growth and become an
effective tool to ensure rural empowerment and raise the quality of rural
life, avoiding incremental costs involved in the traditional mode of service
delivery by the government. The sector provides essential services that ensure
the smooth flow of the daily transactions of people and business houses, thus
helping them become socially and financially inclusive and globally
competitive. It is not only creating jobs with multiplier effects but has also
contributed dimension to small and tiny commercial activities across India.
With the availability of 3G bandwidth, telecom players are gearing up to
embrace mobile commerce in a big way and offer more mobile value-added
services which can generate more revenues.
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