100 Million and still going Stronger . . .
India has secured the "Fifth" position in the world for itself in terms of Telephone connections by crossing the "Hundred-Million" mark.
From various Excerpts . . .
India has crossed the 100 million mark in the number of telephone connections and has become the Fifth Largest Network in the World after China, US, Japan and Germany.
Here are the highlights:
1. Number of Telephone Connections now stands at 100.27 million. (Fixed Line: 46.61%; Mobile: 53.39%)
2. Teledensity: 9.13 (Rural: 1.70; Urban: 20.79)
According to Mr. Dayanidhi Maran, Minister of Communication and Information Technoloy, the government has set a modest target of 250 million telephones and a teledensity of 22 per cent by 2007. The government has set a target of 18 million Internet connections, 50 per cent of which would be broadband.
India's mobile services sector experienced unprecedented growth for the fiscal year ended March 31 this year, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in Delhi. The mobile subscriber base grew by 55 percent during this period from 33.6 million to over 52.1 million, TRAI said.
Spurred by the high growth in the mobile services market, the government is now hoping to boost telecom equipment manufacturing in the country.
A number of multinational telecom equipment vendors including Nokia Corp in Espoo, Finland, and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson in Stockholm have announced that they will make equipment in India. The Indian government is expecting an investment of about US$800 million in telecom manufacturing in India in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2006, Maran said.
Motorola Inc. in Schaumburg, Illinois, is planning to launch later this month a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) handset priced at below US$40 phone, which is expected to give a boost to the market, said Maran, who added that the government is persuading Motorola to set up a manufacturing facility for these handsets in India. "For Motorola to produce a sub-$40 phone, they require low cost and efficient labor," Maran said. Motorola officials said last week in Bangalore that they were considering manufacturing in India, though no final decision had been taken.
The challenge before the government is to bridge the digital divide between the urban and rural areas. The two PSUs (BSNL & MTNL) have a combined market share of 51.39 per cent. To realize the dream of providing connectivity to the rural areas more private participation would be required say from Reliance, Tata and Bhartii.The government is also trying to get service providers to tap into India's rural market, and is planning some incentives, such as allowing operators to share infrastructure, Maran said.
It is also known that the mobile subscriber base corssed over the fixed line subscriber last September. Mobile telephony tariffs in India have come down by about 35 percent over the last one year, according to TRAI. "Lower ARPUs (average revenue per user) does not mean the service providers are losing money," said Maran. "India is a volume game”
Disclaimer
This article in no way reflects the views, opinions, thoughts or beliefs of any person, institution or organization related to the author and is the personal expression of the author.
From various Excerpts . . .
India has crossed the 100 million mark in the number of telephone connections and has become the Fifth Largest Network in the World after China, US, Japan and Germany.
Here are the highlights:
1. Number of Telephone Connections now stands at 100.27 million. (Fixed Line: 46.61%; Mobile: 53.39%)
2. Teledensity: 9.13 (Rural: 1.70; Urban: 20.79)
According to Mr. Dayanidhi Maran, Minister of Communication and Information Technoloy, the government has set a modest target of 250 million telephones and a teledensity of 22 per cent by 2007. The government has set a target of 18 million Internet connections, 50 per cent of which would be broadband.
India's mobile services sector experienced unprecedented growth for the fiscal year ended March 31 this year, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in Delhi. The mobile subscriber base grew by 55 percent during this period from 33.6 million to over 52.1 million, TRAI said.
Spurred by the high growth in the mobile services market, the government is now hoping to boost telecom equipment manufacturing in the country.
A number of multinational telecom equipment vendors including Nokia Corp in Espoo, Finland, and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson in Stockholm have announced that they will make equipment in India. The Indian government is expecting an investment of about US$800 million in telecom manufacturing in India in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2006, Maran said.
Motorola Inc. in Schaumburg, Illinois, is planning to launch later this month a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) handset priced at below US$40 phone, which is expected to give a boost to the market, said Maran, who added that the government is persuading Motorola to set up a manufacturing facility for these handsets in India. "For Motorola to produce a sub-$40 phone, they require low cost and efficient labor," Maran said. Motorola officials said last week in Bangalore that they were considering manufacturing in India, though no final decision had been taken.
The challenge before the government is to bridge the digital divide between the urban and rural areas. The two PSUs (BSNL & MTNL) have a combined market share of 51.39 per cent. To realize the dream of providing connectivity to the rural areas more private participation would be required say from Reliance, Tata and Bhartii.The government is also trying to get service providers to tap into India's rural market, and is planning some incentives, such as allowing operators to share infrastructure, Maran said.
It is also known that the mobile subscriber base corssed over the fixed line subscriber last September. Mobile telephony tariffs in India have come down by about 35 percent over the last one year, according to TRAI. "Lower ARPUs (average revenue per user) does not mean the service providers are losing money," said Maran. "India is a volume game”
Disclaimer
This article in no way reflects the views, opinions, thoughts or beliefs of any person, institution or organization related to the author and is the personal expression of the author.
posted by Mastermind Sohag Sarkar at 4:49 AM
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