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Overview Of Telecom Industry |
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Indian Telecom sector, like any other industrial sector in the country, has gone through many phases of growth and diversification. Starting from telegraphic and telephonic systems in the 19th century, the field of telephonic communication has now expanded to make use of advanced technologies like GSM, CDMA, and WLL to the great 3G Technology in mobile phones. Day by day, both the Public Players and the Private Players are putting in their resources and efforts to improve the telecommunication technology so as to give the maximum to their customers.
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Fixed-line Telephony
Mobile Telephony
Internet
Investment
The Indian telecom sector can be broadly classified into Fixed Line Telephonyand mobile telephony. The major players of the telecom sector are experiencing a fierce competition in both the segments. The major players like BSNL, MTNL, VSNL in the fixed line and Airtel, Hutch, Idea, Tata, Reliance in the mobile segment are coming up with new tariffs and discount schemes to gain the competitive advantage.
The Public Players and the Private Players share the fixed line and the mobile segments. Currently the Public Players have more than 60% of the market share.
Market shares of public and Private Players
Both fixed line and mobile segments serve the basic needs of local calls, long distance calls and the international calls, with the provision of broadband services in the fixed line segment and GPRS in the mobile arena. Traditional telephones have been replaced by the codeless and the wireless instruments. Mobile phone providers have also come up with GPRS-enabled multimedia messaging, Internet surfing, and mobile-commerce. The much-awaited 3G mobile technology is soon going to enter the Indian telecom market. The GSM, CDMA, WLL service providers are all upgrading themselves to provide 3G mobile services.
Along with improvement in telecom services, there is also an improvement in manufacturing. In the beginning, there were only the Siemens handsets in India but now a whole series of new handsets, such as Nokia's latest N-series, Sony Ericsson's W-series, Motorola's PDA phones, etc. have come up. Touch screen and advanced technological handsets are gaining popularity. Radio services have also been incorporated in the mobile handsets, along with other applications like high storage memory, multimedia applications, multimedia games, MP3 Players, video generators, Camera's, etc. The value added services provided by the mobile service operators contribute more than 10% of the total revenue.
The leading cellular service providers have the following number of subscribers:
| Service Provider |
No. of CDMA Subscribers |
No. of GSM Subscribers |
Reliance |
2.75 crores |
38.76 lakhs |
Tata |
1.07 crores |
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Airtel |
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3.37 crores |
MTNL |
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24.98 lakhs |
BSNL |
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2.44 crores |
Hutch |
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2.44 crores |
Idea |
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1.3 crores |
Spice |
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25.56 lakhs |
BPL |
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10.62 lakhs |
Aircel |
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48 lakhs |
Bharti Airtel has the largest customer base with 31% market share, followed by Hutch and BSNL with each holding 22% market share.
The 2007 budget has brought further relief to the customers with the reduction in the tariffs, both local and long distance, and with slashing down the roaming rentals. This is likely to lead to even more people going for cellular services and more and more use of the value added services. However, landline telephony is likely to remain popular, too, in the foreseeable future. MTNL, the largest landline service provider, has recently taken some bold initiatives to retain its market share and, if possible, expand it.
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