INDIAN TELECOM SECTOR: AN OVERVIEW At 110.01 million connections ' Indian Telecom Industry' is the fifth largest and fastest growing in the world. The subscriber base has grown by 40% in 2005 and is expected to reach 250 million in 2007. Over the last 3 years, two out of every three new telephone connections were wireless. Consequently, wireless now accounts for 54.6% of the total telephone subscriber base, as compared to only 40% in 2003. Wireless subscriber growth is expected to grow at 2.5 million new subscribers every month in 2007. The wireless subscriber base skyrocketed from 33.69 million in 2004 to 62.57 million in FY 2004 -2005. The wireless technologies currently in use ' Indian Telecom Industry ' are Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). There are primarily 9 GSM and 5 CDMA operators providing mobile services in 19 telecommunication circles and 4 metro cities, covering more than 2000 towns across the country. And the numbers are still growing for ' Indian Telecom Industry '. ‘Telecom Industry in India ' is regulated by 'Telecom Regulatory Authority of India' (TRAI). It has earned good reputation for transparency and competence. Three types of players exists in ' Telecom Industry India ' community - State owned companies like - BSNL and MTNL. Private Indian owned companies like - Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices. Foreign invested companies like – Hutchison-Essar, Bharti Tele-Ventures, Escotel, Idea Cellular, BPL Mobile, Spice Communications etc. The ‘ Indian Telecom Industry ‘ services are not confined to basic telephone but it also extends to internet, broadband (both wireless and fixed), cable TV, SMS, IPTV, soft switches etc. Special characteristics of telecom* sector*: The main characteristics of telecom sector are as follows: Barriers to entry Telecom sector generally has high entry barriers due to huge investment involved. Service
