Telecom in India. What will be the future

In India as in every other country, fast growth in Telecom and increase in business volume happened due to cost to the user going down both in terms of handsets, rentals, and  call charges. The Mobile business had already peaked in the cities. More growth at a faster pace is possible if the telecom penetration in Rural area improves. Unfortunately, rural telecom expansion has not grown in the way it should have been.

Wired and wireless phones are now an essential part of rich and poor and therefore, is always a growing business provided the stake holders in the business and authorities do not kill it.   To give impetus to rural telecom, it is necessary to implement systems and networks sharing to reduce investment cost and thereby reduction of cost to users. 

There are other reasons also in the slow down of telecom industry.

1. Reduced spending with so-called recession due to correction of the misappropriations of global economy by the greedy industrialists happening across the globe. 

2. Internet over phone lines has large business potential but the companies are not bringing down the rentals charge for Internet. As the end subscriber's line which is the most expensive part is being shared, the internet charge should be much less than the telephone rental.

3. As saturation is seen in the basic products, service providers are aiming for megabit data speed products which will negatively affect  business volume due to high CAPEX/OPEX and high cost to users. 

4. Service providers and vendors are trying hard to sell mega bit rate products and mobile terminals which are neither marketable nor needed by the user in the mobile scenario. User's data needs could be satisfactorily met with an assured  data speed of 384 kbps in the down link. This would be enough for streaming of  Video + Audio in real time basis.  Even the 3G hot spots being set up are going to be expensive and hence cannot bring in enough business volume. These facts are taking the mobile business back to 2000 - 2002 era. 

Realization of the fact is likely to bring some reduction in staff working on the so called advanced technology projects. It is easy to camouflage these by using Recession as a scapegoat.  

The need of the day is an introspection and rethinking on growth based business plans by the Industrialists and the Authorities.  

Hi,

Telecom Sector in even developed countries is registering growth. New IP technology has opened doors for growth in telecom and entertainment area again.

Indian telecom sector can further grow without any major issues as tremendous scope for bringing value added services.

Spectrum is a scarce natural resource. The best way to use this resource and to use this in the interest of the people should have been on auctioning this resource and giving licence, which would be service and technology neutral. Such an approach could have ensured technology innovation, assimilation, delivery and expansion of the network. At the same time, this could have generated huge revenue for the public exchequer. This could have been used both for investment for telecom development in such areas which are not commercially prospective and other urgent social sector requirements.