TELECOMMUNICATIONS

India's telephone network is one of the largest in the world. The far reaching economical reforms since 1991 have unleashed the immense growth potential of the Indian economy. A new spirit of economic freedom is now steering the country with IT in the fore front. The second generation reforms was aimed at further deregulation, ushering in greater market competition and improved efficiency in production and services thereby stimulating investment and growth.  At present the quality of services and the rules of the telecom world in India is a bit complicated.

Since 1985 the communication facility has been augmented significantly in the form of fiber-optic cable and a domestic satellite system with 254 earth stations; mobile cellular service is provided in four metropolitan cities.

Satellite earth stations - 8 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Inmarsat (Indian Ocean region); nine gateway exchanges operating from Mumbai (Bombay), New Delhi, Kolkata (Calcutta), Chennai (Madras), Jalandhar, Kanpur, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, and Ernakulam; 4 submarine cables - LOCOM linking Chennai (Madras) to Penang; Indo-UAE-Gulf cable linking Mumbai (Bombay) to Al Fujayrah, UAE; India-SEA-ME-WE-3, SEA-ME-WE-2 with landing sites at Cochin and Mumbai (Bombay); Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) with landing site at Mumbai (Bombay) (2000) (9)

 

Telephones - main lines in use: 27.7 million

Telephones - mobile cellular: 2.93 million

 Radio broadcast stations: AM 153, FM 91, Short wave 68

 Radios: 116 million

 Television broadcast stations: 562 (of which 82 stations have 1 kW or greater power and 480 stations have less than 1 kW of power) 

 Televisions: 69 million

 Internet country code: .in

 Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 63

 Internet users: 6.8 million (18)

To ensure  the investment of money and technology in the telecom infrastructure, T.R.A.I (Telecom Regulation Authority of India) has divided the telecom sector into the following groups:(17)

• Cellular Mobile Service Providers, Fixed Service Providers and Cable Service Providers, collectively referred to as ‘Access Providers’
• Radio Paging Service Providers
• Public Mobile Radio Trunking Service Providers
• National Long Distance Operators
• International long Distance Operators
• Other Service Providers
• Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) Service Providers
• V-SAT based Service Providers

 

    Top

   home

This site was developed for
Impacts of National Information Technology Environments on Business
Kogod School of Business

 Washington, DC.

 Feb 2003