Synopsis
India has a huge national telecommunications network. With fixed-line penetration falling below 3% coming into 2012, the country has nevertheless achieved a remarkable coverage, 98% of the population having some form of access to a telephone. Despite the heavy investment in telecoms infrastructure over the last decade, servicing the huge population has presented major difficulties. Even the booming mobile phone market had 75% penetration in early 2012. As well as its huge national network, India’s investment in telecommunications infrastructure over the last decade has extended to a heavy involvement in the international market. Under the leadership of International operator VSNL/Tata Indicom the country has been assembling an extensive infrastructure of gateways, satellite earth stations and fibre optic submarine cables. Billions of rupees continue to be invested in a combination of submarine cables and microwave systems to satisfy India’s demand for international bandwidth and high-quality connectivity. Most significantly, VSNL/Tata Indicom has become a serious international player on the back of a series of acquisitions and good strategic moves.
This report provides an update on telecoms infrastructure in India as the government and the operators push forward on a number of fronts to speed up the roll-out of services to the wider population. It also provides an overview of the submarine and satellite systems that have been put in place in recent times as the country addresses its international bandwidth needs.
Key developments:
The mobile market continues to receive the bulk of the capital expenditure as the operators build out their mobile infrastructure; the rapid and efficient roll-out of 3G networks by the operators has been impressive; the shakeout from the so-called 2G scandal was continuing to bring uncertainty to the wider telecom market and at least in the short term was certain to have impact on investment and infrastructure development; fixed-line subscriber numbers are declining with no clear direction for this segment of the market; the efforts of the government to increase participation of private operators in rolling out fixed lines have met with little success.
Companies covered in this report include:
Bharti Airtel, Idea/Spice, Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Vodafone Essar, Bharti Telenet, Reliance Infocomm, Tata Teleservices, Tulip Telecom, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL), Tata Indicom, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), Quippo Telecom.
