Recent operators also operate in the 1800 MHz band.
In 1850, the first experimental electric telegraph line was started between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour.
In 1851, it was opened for the use of the British East India Company.
The Posts and Telegraphs department occupied a small corner of the Public Works Department, at that time. The construction of of telegraph lines was started in November 1853.
A separate department was opened in 1854 when telegraph facilities were opened to the public. In 1880, two telephone companies namely The Oriental Telephone Company Ltd.
A separate department was opened in 1854 when telegraph facilities were opened to the public. In 1880, two telephone companies namely The Oriental Telephone Company Ltd.
In 1881, the Government later reversed its earlier decision and a licence was granted to the Oriental Telephone Company Limited of England for opening telephone exchanges at Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and Ahmedabad and the first formal telephone service was established in the country.
On 28 January 1882, Major E.
In 1937 it was given the name All India Radio and since 1957 it has been called Akashvani.
All India Radio and Doordarshan, which earlier were working as media units under the Ministry of I&B became constituents of the body. Pre-liberalisation statistics: While all the major cities and towns in the country were linked with telephones during the British period, the total number of telephones in 1948 numbered only around 80,000.
In 1937 it was given the name All India Radio and since 1957 it has been called Akashvani.
Limited duration of television programming began in 1959, and complete broadcasting followed in 1965.
Limited duration of television programming began in 1959, and complete broadcasting followed in 1965.
The number of telephones grew leisurely to 980,000 in 1971, 2.15 million in 1981 and 5.07 million in 1991, the year economic reforms were initiated in the country. ===Liberalisation and privatisation=== Liberalisation of Indian telecommunication in industry started in 1981 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed contracts with Alcatel CIT of France to merge with the state owned Telecom Company (ITI), in an effort to set up 5,000,000 lines per year.
The number of telephones grew leisurely to 980,000 in 1971, 2.15 million in 1981 and 5.07 million in 1991, the year economic reforms were initiated in the country. ===Liberalisation and privatisation=== Liberalisation of Indian telecommunication in industry started in 1981 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed contracts with Alcatel CIT of France to merge with the state owned Telecom Company (ITI), in an effort to set up 5,000,000 lines per year.
Sam Pitroda had a significant role as a consultant and adviser in the development of telecommunication in India. In 1985, the Department of Telecom(DoT) was separated from Indian Post & Telecommunication Department.
Sixteen years later 4G services were launched in Kolkata in 2012. With a subscriber base of more than 1151.8 million (31 Oct 2020), the mobile telecommunications system in India is the second-largest in the world and it was thrown open to private players in the 1990s.
The policy reforms of the government in the 1990s attracted private initiatives in this sector, and since then, satellite television has increasingly shaped popular culture and Indian society.
In 2012, India had about 148 million TV homes of which 126 million has access to cable and satellite services. Following the economic reforms in the 1990s, satellite television channels from around the world—BBC, CNN, CNBC, and other private television channels gained a foothold in the country.
In the late 1990s, many current affairs and news channels sprouted, becoming immensely popular because of the alternative viewpoint they offered compared to Doordarshan.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting owned and maintained the audio-visual apparatus—including the television channel Doordarshan—in the country prior to the economic reforms of 1991.
The number of telephones grew leisurely to 980,000 in 1971, 2.15 million in 1981 and 5.07 million in 1991, the year economic reforms were initiated in the country. ===Liberalisation and privatisation=== Liberalisation of Indian telecommunication in industry started in 1981 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed contracts with Alcatel CIT of France to merge with the state owned Telecom Company (ITI), in an effort to set up 5,000,000 lines per year.
It was during this period that the Narsimha Rao-led government introduced the National Telecommunications policy (NTP) in 1994 which brought changes in the following areas: ownership, service and regulation of telecommunications infrastructure.
As of October 2020, India has 20 million wireline customers. ===Mobile telephony=== In August 1995, then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu made the first mobile phone call in India to then Union Telecom Minister Sukhram.
Currently Trivandrum tops the Indian cities with a mobile penetration of 168.4 followed by Kollam 143.2 and Kochi 141.7. ==Internet== The history of the Internet in India started with the launch of services by VSNL on 15 August 1995.
In 1997, an autonomous body was established in the name of Prasar Bharti to take care of the public service broadcasting under the Prasar Bharti Act.
During all these improvements, the government did face oppositions from ITI, DoT, MTNL, VSNL and other labour unions, but they managed to keep away from all the hurdles. In 1997, the government set up TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) which reduced the interference of Government in deciding tariffs and policymaking.
In 2000, the Vajpayee government constituted the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) through an amendment of the TRAI Act, 1997.
The political powers changed in 1999 and the new government under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee was more pro-reforms and introduced better liberalisation policies.
Some major telecom operators in India include the privately-owned companies like Vi, Airtel, and Reliance Jio and the state-owned companies- BSNL and MTNL. ===Landline=== Before the New Telecom Policy was announced in 1999, only the Government-owned BSNL and MTNL were allowed to provide land-line phone services through copper wire in India with MTNL operating in Delhi and Mumbai and BSNL servicing all other areas of the country.
In 2000, the Vajpayee government constituted the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) through an amendment of the TRAI Act, 1997.
The government corporatised the operations wing of DoT on 1 October 2000 and named it as Department of Telecommunication Services (DTS) which was later named as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).
After March 2000, the government became more liberal in making policies and issuing licences to private operators.
The mobile subscriber base has grown from 5 million subscribers in 2001 to over 1,179.32 million subscribers as of July 2018.
Finally in April 2002, the government decided to cut its stake of 53% to 26% in VSNL and to throw it open for sale to private enterprises.
In the initial 5–6 years the average monthly subscribers additions were around 0.05 to 0.1 million only and the total mobile subscribers base in December 2002 stood at 10.5 million.
Initial design capacity 10 Gbit/s, upgraded in 2002 to 80 Gbit/s, upgraded to over 1 Tbit/s (2005). TIISCS (Tata Indicom India-Singapore Cable System), also known as TIC (Tata Indicom Cable), Chennai to Singapore.
This may provide end-users with virtually unlimited options to choose between service providers for these services in NGN environment. The hyper-competition in the telecom market, which was effectively caused by the introduction of Universal Access Service (UAS) licence in 2003 became much tougher after 3G and 4G competitive auction.
The rates are supposed to go down further with new measures to be taken by the Information Ministry. In September 2004, the number of mobile phone connections crossed the number of fixed-line connections and presently dwarfs the wireline segment substantially.
In 2004, the government formulated its broadband policy which defined broadband as "an always-on Internet connection with a download speed of 256 kbit/s or above." From 2005 onward the growth of the broadband sector in the country accelerated but remained below the growth estimates of the government and related agencies due to resource issues in last-mile access which were predominantly wired-line technologies.
In 2004, the government formulated its broadband policy which defined broadband as "an always-on Internet connection with a download speed of 256 kbit/s or above." From 2005 onward the growth of the broadband sector in the country accelerated but remained below the growth estimates of the government and related agencies due to resource issues in last-mile access which were predominantly wired-line technologies.
Cumulative Annual Growth rate (CAGR) of broadband during the five-year period between 2005 and 2010 was about 117 per cent. There were 204 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offering broadband services in India as of 31 December 2017.
However, in January 2005, Antrix Corporation (commercial arm of ISRO) signed an agreement with Devas Multimedia (a private company formed by former ISRO employees and venture capitalists from USA) for lease of S band transponders (amounting to 70 MHz of spectrum) on two ISRO satellites (GSAT 6 and GSAT 6A) for a price of , to be paid over a period of 12 years.
The Cabinet was misinformed in November 2005 that several service providers were interested in using satellite capacity, while the Devas deal was already signed.
On 16 November 2006, the Government of India released the community radio policy which allowed agricultural centres, educational institutions and civil society organisations to apply for community based FM broadcasting licence.
Raja (Minister of Communications & IT from 2007 to 2009), the primary official accused's term as communications minister.
According to 2007 statistics, the average download speed in India hovered at about 40 KB per second (256 kbit/s), the minimum speed set by TRAI, whereas the international average was 5.6 Mbit/s during the same period.
In order to attend this infrastructure issue the government declared 2007 as "the year of broadband".
Keeping in mind the viability of providing services in rural areas, the government of India also took a proactive role to promote the NGN implementation in the country; an expert committee called NGN eCO was constituted in order to deliberate on the licensing, interconnection and quality of service (QoS) issues related to NGN and it submitted its report on 24 August 2007.
The low penetration of broadband of mere 3.87 against the policy objective of 9 million at the end of 2007 clearly indicates that the regulatory environment is not very conducive. In 2013 the home ministry stated that legislation must ensure that law enforcement agencies are empowered to intercept communications. ==S-band spectrum scam== In India, electromagnetic spectrum, being a scarce resource for wireless communication, is auctioned by the Government of India to telecom companies for use.
A new mobile connection can be activated with a monthly commitment of US$0.15 only. ===Licence cancellation=== On 2 February 2012 the Supreme Court ruled on petitions filed by Subramanian Swamy and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) represented by Prashant Bhushan, challenging the 2008 allotment of 2G licenses, cancelling all 122 spectrum licences granted during A.
Due to the rapid growth of the cellular phone industry in India, landlines are facing stiff competition from cellular operators, with the number of wireline subscribers fell from 37.90 million in December 2008 to 20 million in October 2020.
The most recent survey was conducted in July 2008 in eight Asian countries, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines.
Raja (Minister of Communications & IT from 2007 to 2009), the primary official accused's term as communications minister.
In 2009, about 37 per cent of the users access the Internet from cyber cafes, 30 per cent from an office, and 23 per cent from home.
However, the number of mobile Internet users increased rapidly from 2009 on and there were about 359.80 million mobile users at the end of January 2018, with a majority using 4G mobile networks. One of the major issues facing the Internet segment in India is the lower average bandwidth of broadband connections compared to that of developed countries.
ISRO committed to spending of public money on building, launching, and operating two satellites that were leased out for Devas. In late 2009, some ISRO insiders exposed information about the Devas-Antrix deal, and the ensuing investigations resulted in the deal being annulled.
This bottleneck was removed in 2010 when the government auctioned 3G spectrum followed by an equally high-profile auction of 4G spectrum that set the scene for a competitive and invigorated wireless broadband market.
Cumulative Annual Growth rate (CAGR) of broadband during the five-year period between 2005 and 2010 was about 117 per cent. There were 204 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offering broadband services in India as of 31 December 2017.
As an example of its value, in 2010, 20 MHz of 3G spectrum was auctioned for .
Hypothetically, if the spectrum allocation is changed for utilisation for terrestrial transmission and if this 70 MHz of spectrum were sold at the 2010 auction price of the 3G spectrum, its value would have been over .
A new mobile connection can be activated with a monthly commitment of US$0.15 only. ===Licence cancellation=== On 2 February 2012 the Supreme Court ruled on petitions filed by Subramanian Swamy and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) represented by Prashant Bhushan, challenging the 2008 allotment of 2G licenses, cancelling all 122 spectrum licences granted during A.
Sixteen years later 4G services were launched in Kolkata in 2012. With a subscriber base of more than 1151.8 million (31 Oct 2020), the mobile telecommunications system in India is the second-largest in the world and it was thrown open to private players in the 1990s.
To compete with international standards of defining broadband speed the Indian Government has taken the aggressive step of proposing a $13 billion national broadband network to connect all cities, towns and villages with a population of more than 500 in two phases targeted for completion by 2012 and 2013.
In 2012, India had about 148 million TV homes of which 126 million has access to cable and satellite services. Following the economic reforms in the 1990s, satellite television channels from around the world—BBC, CNN, CNBC, and other private television channels gained a foothold in the country.
at a wide range of speeds and costs. According to the Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the Internet user base in the country stood at 190 million at the end of June 2013, rosing to 378.10 million in January 2018.
To compete with international standards of defining broadband speed the Indian Government has taken the aggressive step of proposing a $13 billion national broadband network to connect all cities, towns and villages with a population of more than 500 in two phases targeted for completion by 2012 and 2013.
The low penetration of broadband of mere 3.87 against the policy objective of 9 million at the end of 2007 clearly indicates that the regulatory environment is not very conducive. In 2013 the home ministry stated that legislation must ensure that law enforcement agencies are empowered to intercept communications. ==S-band spectrum scam== In India, electromagnetic spectrum, being a scarce resource for wireless communication, is auctioned by the Government of India to telecom companies for use.
In 2014, Trivandrum became the first city in India to cross the mobile penetration milestone of 100 mobile connections per 100 people.
The government has pragmatically used modern telecommunication facilities to deliver mass education programmes for the rural folk of India. According to London-based telecom trade body GSMA, the telecom sector accounted for 6.5% of India's GDP in 2015, or about , and supported direct employment for 2.2 million people in the country.
In 2015 three more cities from Kerala, Kollam, Kochi and Kottayam crossed the 100 mark.
In September 2015, the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce ruled in favour of Devas, and directed Antrix to pay US$672 million (Rs 44.35 billion) in damages to Devas.
According to the ruling the then granted licences would remain in place for four months, after which time the government would reissue the licences. === Consolidation === Post starting of the commercial operation of Reliance Jio in September 2016, the telecom market saw a huge change in terms of falling tariff rates and reduction of data charges, which changed the economics for some of the telecom players.
Players like Videocon and Systema sold their spectrum under spectrum trading agreements to Airtel and RCOM respectively in Q4 2016. On 23 February 2017, Telenor India announced that Bharti Airtel will take over all its business and assets in India and deal will be completed in 12 months timeframe.
Antrix opposed the Devas plea for tribunal award in the Delhi High Court. ==Revenue and growth== The adjusted gross revenue in the telecom service sector was in 2017 as against in 2016, registering a negative growth of 18.87%.
IRAM - Radio Audience Measurement in India from 2016. ==External links== Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Cellular Operators Association of India Internet Usage Stats and Telecommunications of India Accounting & Reporting in Telecom Industry Mergers & Acquisitions in Indian Telecom Industry
Players like Videocon and Systema sold their spectrum under spectrum trading agreements to Airtel and RCOM respectively in Q4 2016. On 23 February 2017, Telenor India announced that Bharti Airtel will take over all its business and assets in India and deal will be completed in 12 months timeframe.
Telenor India has been acquired by Airtel almost without any cost. On 12 October 2017, Bharti Airtel announced that it would acquire the consumer mobile businesses of Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices Maharastra Ltd (TTML) in a debt-free cash-free deal.
The consumer mobile businesses of Tata Docomo, Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited (TTML) have been merged into Bharti Airtel from 1 July 2019. Reliance Communications had to shut down its 2G and 3G services including all voice services and only offer 4G data services from 29 December 2017, as a result of debt and a failed merger with Aircel.
Surprisingly, the shut down was shortly after completion of acquisition of MTS India on 31 October 2017.
In 2017 many other major cities in the country like Chennai, Mysore, Mangalore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, etc.
Cumulative Annual Growth rate (CAGR) of broadband during the five-year period between 2005 and 2010 was about 117 per cent. There were 204 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offering broadband services in India as of 31 December 2017.
In terms of mobile internet speed, India performed quite poorly, with average speed of 9.01 Mbit/s when compared with global average mobile broadband speed was 22.16 Mbit/s. As of December 2017, according to Internet and Mobile Association of India, the Internet penetration rate in India is one of the lowest in the world and only accounts for 35% of the population compared to the global average internet penetration is over 54.4%.
Another issue is the digital divide where growth is biased in favour of urban areas; according to December 2017 statistics, internet penetration in urban India was 64.84%, whereas internet penetration in rural India is only 20.26%.
Antrix opposed the Devas plea for tribunal award in the Delhi High Court. ==Revenue and growth== The adjusted gross revenue in the telecom service sector was in 2017 as against in 2016, registering a negative growth of 18.87%.
On 14 May 2018, Department of Telecom approved the merger of Telenor India with Bharti Airtel paving the way for final commercial closing of the merger between the two companies.
It has an estimated debt of ₹ 57,383 crore against assets worth ₹18,000 crore. Aircel shut down its operations in unprofitable circles including, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh (West) from 30 January 2018.
Aircel along with its units - Aircel Cellular and Dishnet Wireless - on 1 March 2018, filed for bankruptcy in the National Companies Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Mumbai due to huge competition and high levels of debt. Vodafone and Idea Cellular completed their merger on 31 August 2018, and the merged entity is renamed to Vi.
The mobile subscriber base has grown from 5 million subscribers in 2001 to over 1,179.32 million subscribers as of July 2018.
at a wide range of speeds and costs. According to the Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the Internet user base in the country stood at 190 million at the end of June 2013, rosing to 378.10 million in January 2018.
As of January 2018, the top five ISPs in terms subscriber base were Reliance Jio (168.39 million), Bharti Airtel (75.01 million), Vodafone (54.83 million), Idea Cellular (37.33 million) and BSNL (21.81 million).
However, the number of mobile Internet users increased rapidly from 2009 on and there were about 359.80 million mobile users at the end of January 2018, with a majority using 4G mobile networks. One of the major issues facing the Internet segment in India is the lower average bandwidth of broadband connections compared to that of developed countries.
In February 2018, the average broadband speed of fixed-line connection in India was 20.72 Mbit/s, which is less than the global average download speed of 42.71 Mbit/s.
The licence is valid for five years and one organisation can only get one licence, which is non-transferable and to be used for community development purposes. ==Radio== As of June 2018, there are 328 private FM radio stations in India.
The consumer mobile businesses of Tata Docomo, Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited (TTML) have been merged into Bharti Airtel from 1 July 2019. Reliance Communications had to shut down its 2G and 3G services including all voice services and only offer 4G data services from 29 December 2017, as a result of debt and a failed merger with Aircel.
In February 2019, the company filed for bankruptcy as it was unable to sell assets to repay its debt.
GSMA estimates that the Indian telecom sector will contribute to the economy and support 3 million direct jobs and 2 million indirect jobs by 2020. ==History== ===The beginning=== Telecommunications in India began with the introduction of the telegraph.
Due to the rapid growth of the cellular phone industry in India, landlines are facing stiff competition from cellular operators, with the number of wireline subscribers fell from 37.90 million in December 2008 to 20 million in October 2020.
As of October 2020, India has 20 million wireline customers. ===Mobile telephony=== In August 1995, then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu made the first mobile phone call in India to then Union Telecom Minister Sukhram.
Sixteen years later 4G services were launched in Kolkata in 2012. With a subscriber base of more than 1151.8 million (31 Oct 2020), the mobile telecommunications system in India is the second-largest in the world and it was thrown open to private players in the 1990s.
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