the indian telecommunication industry · 2012-08-24 · telecommunication is the third largest in...
TRANSCRIPT
The Indian Telecommunication
Industry
Submitted to:
Dr. Faheem Hussain
Submitted by:
Binny K. Babu,
Nithya P.C.
Shivalaxmi Arumugham
Computer Science Major
Table of Contents
Introduction
Telecom and ICT regulations/Acts in India
o The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885
o The Indian Wireless telegraphy Act, 1933, Act XVII of 1933
o Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act 1997
Communication Convergence Bill 2001
o The Information Technology Act, 2000
o Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2004
o Right to Information Act, 2005
Universal Service and the Status of 3A’s in Indian Telecom Industry
Telephone and Internet Connectivity
o Penetration rate
o Major Market players
Emerging Technologies
o 3G technologies:
o Mobile Number Portability
o WiMAX
Expected Changes in the Telecommunication Industry of India
Challenges/Problems identified
Recommendations
Conclusion
Works Cited
Introduction
India is an emerging Southeast Asian economy with a population of 1.15 billion people.
Despite of its population, it has a fast growing telecommunication industry, which contributes
8.5% to the Nation’s GDP (Amrit). As per the data by March 2010, the Indian
telecommunication is the third largest in the world, with a total network of 621 million network
connections. Moreover, the growth of the industry in the last few years is at the rate of 45%. The
country has undergone a lot of changes and development in the past and has turned out to be one
among the hubs of telecommunication industry. Liberalization of the market policies by the
Indian Government, the fair regulatory framework which offers “affordable” telecom services to
its customers all over the country, and the large number of consumer make the Indian
telecommunication industry successful (Department of Telecommunications). This paper
explores the present status of Indian Telecommunication Industry in terms of its growth in both
telecom and internet sectors. Also, the paper briefly talks about the issues with regulatory
policies and acts and identifies the challenges faced by the industry and hence concludes by
giving some recommendations for improvements.
Telecom and ICT regulations/Acts in India
The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885
The Indian Telegraph Act is the first act regarding telegraph services in India. This act
defined different terms related to telegraph and postal services. Most importantly it defined
“Universal service” and established Universal Service Obligation fund (USOF) in order to attain
the goals of universal service concept (Ministry of Communication and Information Technology,
1885).
The Indian Wireless telegraphy Act, 1933, Act XVII of 1933
This act was meant to manage the ownership of wireless telegraphy equipment. It
prohibits the possession of unlicensed telegraph equipment. Also, it defined a couple of technical
terms regarding wireless communication (Ministry of Communication and Information
Technology, 1993).
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Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act 1997
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act 1997 was for establishing the Indian
Telecom Regulatory Authority and gives them power to regulate the telecom services and to
analyze and solve the issues in the growth of telecommunication sector of India (Ministry of
Communication and Information Technology, 1997).
Communication Convergence Bill 2001:
Communication Convergence Bill 2001 was to improve different modes of
communication such as telecommunication, and multimedia, for setting up an independent
commission in order to regulate all communication systems, creation of an “Appellate Tribunal”
and to examine the issues related with all of the above (Ministry of Communication and
Information Technology, 2001).
The Information Technology Act, 2000
Main goal of the “The Information Technology Act, 2000” was to legitimize the
transactions which include the storage and exchange of electronic data and “electronic
commerce”. It enforces the usage of electronic data storage devices as alternatives for paper
based methods of storing information in government offices (Ministry of Communication and
Information Technology, 2000).
Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2004
The rule after the 522 of the Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951 is modified to have the Indian
Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2004. It included some additional details about Universal
Service Obligation Fund. It defined terms such as “administrator of universal service obligation
fund,” “universal service provider,” “universal service obligation” and “village public
telephone.” It briefly talked about the criteria for the selection of universal service providers and
it is by a “bidding process” among the “eligible operators”. Afore mentioned “eligible operators”
includes Basic Service Operators, Cellular Mobile Service Providers and Unified Access
Services Licensees or any others mentioned by the Central Government. The act says that the
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funds must be provided to the universal service providers in intervals (Ministry of
Communication and Information Technology, 2004).
Right to Information Act, 2005
This act allows any citizen in India to have the right to information about any government
department. In order to have access to information, the person has to submit an application to the
Central Public Information Officer (CPIO). If the person is not satisfied with the information
provided, he/she can file a petition against the CPIO within 30 days of receiving the reply
(Ministry of Communication and Information Technology).
In addition to above mentioned acts and rules, there are certain important regulations in the
telecom industry of India. The major and recent ones are for ensuring interconnection among the
service providers (The Telecommunication (broadcasting and cable services) Interconnection
regulations, 2010) (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, 2009, 2010 ), regulating broadband
connectivity and mobile number portability (Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability
(First and Second amendments) Regulations) (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, 2010).
Universal Service and the Status of 3A’s in Indian Telecom Industry
The telephone amendment act of 2002 has defined universal service as the service, which
can provide basic “telegraph” services to citizens of India in affordable and reasonable rates in
urban as well as rural areas. Later, in 2004, Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules appended the
mobile phone services and broadband connectivity to universal service in order to get support for
their expansion in connectivity in rural and distant areas of the country. USOF (Universal
Service Obligation Fund) is meant for meeting the objectives of Universal Service in the country.
Universal Service Levy (USL) is responsible for raising the resources for achieving the goals of
universal service fund and it is at 5% of the AGR (Adjusted Gross revenue) of the telecom
providers all over the country. This is charged as a license fee which is between 6% to 10%
means that every person engaged in telephone conversation is contributing to the Universal
Service Fund. Also, there are loans and subsidies for the service providers from the Central
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Government to accomplish the objectives of universal service (Ministry of Communication and
Information Technology, 2002).
Apart from the general idea of how 3A’s (Availability, Affordability and Accessibility)
should work, India has its own obligations that they think is necessary for attaining the goal
universal service (Eric Lie, 2007).
Programs by USO Fund
Public as well as private telecom operators are in charge for implementing the USO
programs. Their activities mainly include:
a. Establishing and maintaining VPTs (Village Public Telephone)
b. Substituting the Village Public telephones working on Multi Access Radio Relay
Technology.
c. Provision of more telephones in rural areas in order to have at least one VPT for every
revenue village.
d. Introducing RDELs (household telephones) in the rural areas distant areas of the country.
e. Broadband connectivity in rural areas and government offices in rural areas.
f. Introducing new and advanced technologies and infrastructure in rural areas in order to
amplify the growth of telecommunication sector (Ministry of Communication and
Information Technology, 2002).
Status of implementation of the USO programs (3A)
Village Public Telephones:
As per the agreements with six Private Basic Service Operators(PBOS) like M/s BSNL,
RIL (Reliance), TTL & TTL (MH), Bharti (Airtel), HFCL and Shyam Telecom, they are the
ones who is responsible for the maintenance and implementation of the Village Public
Telephones(VPTs) in certain revenue villages according to the Census 1991. Also, as per the
Census of 2001, 96% of the revenue villages already have the VPTs (Ministry of
Communication and Information Technology).
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New VPTs: There are 62,433 uncovered villages which needed to have the VPT facility
and BSNL will be providing the service with the help of subsidies from USOF according
the agreement with USOF in 2009.
Replacement of MARR based VPTs: Since the most of the VTPS (about 1, 86,872 of
them) were working on Multi Access Radio Relay (MARR) technology, which are not
working properly, will be replaced by advanced technology equipment in with the help of
subsidies from USOF. In addition to the above mentioned services, DoT is planning to
provide and have already shown little progress in RCP (Rural Community phone) and
RDELs (Rural Household Direct Exchange Lines (Ministry of Communication and
Information Technology).
Support to develop Infrastructure: There is a scheme from USOF to establish the
infrastructure for wireless or mobile services in the rural and remote areas of 27 states
where there are no such services by providing subsidies to the eligible service providers.
According to the agreement, three service providers will be sharing the infrastructure for
it.
Broadband in rural areas: Individual users and Government offices will be benefitted
from the 8, 61, 459 wire-line Broadband connections by 2014 in the rural areas of the
country. BSNL will be the responsible service provider for this (Ministry of
Communication and Information Technology).
Telephone and Internet Connectivity
Telephone and Internet Penetration
The number of telephone subscribers, including mobile and landline, in India is 706.37
million at the end of August 2010 with a growth rate of 2.61% (in July 2010, the number of
telephone subscribers was 688.38 million). Among the 706.37 million telephone subscribers, 670
million people use mobile phones, which contribute to 58.2% of the total population. The tele-
density, which is defined as the ration of phone per population, of India has reached 59.63 in
2010(TELECOM REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA, 2010). India plays a very
important role in Mobile market. In Asian Pacific market, India stands next to China and
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together India and China contribute 1.04 billion of mobile customers to 4.15 billion mobile
customers of the world (Cellular News, 2009).
However, in comparison to all the technological facilities India has, it has a very low
Internet penetration rate. As per the statistics of ITU, there are only 81 million internet users in
India which is expected to rise up to 237 million in 2015 with an internet penetration rate of
6.9% (The Hindu, 2010) (Internet World Stats., 2010). The majority of the internet users in India
are from the large cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai, and the people who came
into the cities from the rural area of the country. Figure 1 shows the penetration rate and the
number of users (in million) in India from the year 2001 to 2010 except the year 2008. The 4th
column shows the rate of internet penetration in different years (Internet World Stats., 2010). In
the year 2006 and 2007, there was a decrease in the number of internet users, which has resulted
in less penetration rate. The decrease might be because of the economic turmoil that happened in
these years. In the graph, the number of internet users has skewed to the year 2001, which shows
that there is an increase in the number of internet users along with the increase in penetration
rate.
Figure 1. “Internet Penetration and the Number of User-India”
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Market Player in Telecom Sector
The giant in the Indian telecom market is Bharti Airtel which has 21.06 % of market
share followed by Reliance with 17.2%. Vodafone holds the 3rd
highest market share of 16.97%
and Tata has 11.47% of the market share. Other major players in the market are Bharat Sanchar
Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Idea with 11.34% and 10.85% of the telecom industry market share
respectively (TELECOM REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA, 2010). Figure 2 represents
the Market share of Indian Service Providers in the year 2010.
Figure 2: Market Share of the Telephone Service Providers(August 2010) (TELECOM
REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA, 2010).
Service
Providers
Market
Share (%)
Bharti 21.06
Reliance 17.2
Vodafone 16.97
Tata 11.47
BSNL 11.34
Idea 10.85
Aircel 6.7
Unitech 1.36
Sistema 0.91
MTNL 0.79
Videocon 0.55
Loop 0.44
Stel 0.23
HFCL 0.14
Etisalat 0.01
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Market players in ICT industry
The dominant player in Indian IT market is Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)
which owns a market share of 56.76% followed by MTNL that has about 14.29%. Bharti Airtel
holds 8.07% of the market share which is close to the market share of Reliance Communication
Infra with 7.56%. Hathway Cable and Datacome Pvt. Ltd hold 1.94% of the share and the rest
11% belongs to a couple of other companies that are not as famous as the other major internet
service providers. Figure 3 shows the market share of different Internet service providers in India
in the month of March in 2010.
Figure 3: “Market Share of Internet Service Providers in India”
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India is still in the process of growing as the biggest telecommunication industry in South
Asia. As a part of this growth, the country has already started replacing the existing technologies
with new technologies. The next section “Emerging Technologies in India” lists out the different
technologies that came into play in this decade.
Emerging Technologies in India
3G technologies
3G (third generation) technologies possess greater advancements over the wireless
technologies. They are mostly found in mobile phones connected to internet and provides voice
and video data calls, upload and downloading files and browse the net, and other broadband
applications like audio-video conferencing, e-commerce services, fax services, e-learning at a
faster rate(About.com, 2010). Comparing to the 2G technology, 3G provides higher downloading
capacity of 3 Mbps speed. 3G also has initiated the network operators and handset providers to
come up with new services and advanced mobile phones with new multimedia applications to
promote 3G technologies in 2007 (NaukriHub, 2010). With a fast internet, it is able to provide
high quality video conferencing and advanced audio and video stream and web browsing.
Although the 2G technology was very common in India, there was a huge gap between the tele
density in the urban and rural areas. Within a population of 1.08 in 2004, there were only 14
phones per 100 people. This number is comparatively higher in urban areas (teledensity is 31%)
than in rural (only 2%). Research finds that when 3G is used as a modem or a data card can
bridge the gap (India Telecom News, 2010). In order to provide 3G service in India, the service
providers need to get license. Some telecom service providers such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone,
Reliance, Tata and Idea were being issued with 3G licenses (Mahima, 2010). Among all the
providers of 3G, BSNL and MTNL, pioneers of 3G providers and Government Corporation in
the country, have 1.5 million of connections around India. Therefore, these providers are
forecasted to cover 25% of the market of 3G whereas Airtel, Reliance Communications and
Vodafone together would cover 43% of the whole market.
Marketing of 3G is very interesting in a way that the carriers provide better offers for the
schools and educational institutions. Recently, BSNL has introduced a new plan called BSNL
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Yuva Rajasthan 3G Plan, which offers cheapest voice and video calls with the speed of 3.6 Mbps
along with many free national SMS. More importantly, they offer video calls with the rate of 10,
30 and 70 paisa per minute (Sanjay Bafna, 2010).
The study conducted by The Nielsen Company pointed out some main plans that will
help Indian 3G market to succeed. Similar to the US plan in the 3G penetration, India needs to
provide better user experience with their carrier’s service and suitable handsets. This brings the
users to experience 3G which certainly let consumers know how it would be like to use 3G. In
order to make it more sustainable, the service should have consumer relevant services.
Mobile Number Portability
Few years back, India started to think about the new technology for changing mobile
operators without changing the number. This number portability is first established in Haryana
and expected to reach the all over the country by January 2011. The cost for mobile number
porting will be INR 19. Policies are very essential to open up company’s willingness and
promote competition in the Mobile Number Portability market. Customers do not need to get
stuck with monotonous services because of the need to change the number. It will certainly make
an impact on the telecom provides by creating a fear of losing customers which would lead to
better services. This would be a situation where the telecom providers/carriers become more
aware of their services to their customers in order to not to lose them (Sanjay Bafna, 2010.
WiMAX
WiMAX, which is Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, provides access to
broadband internet thorough a wireless connection in a large area. There are 49.75 million
subscribers in the country. India has 368 member companies in the WIMAX forum, which also
includes 136 service providers.
VOIP
VoIP(Voice over Internet Protocol) helps people to make low call rates anywhere in the
world to mobiles or land phones via internet. This voIp requires high speed internet. It breaks the
voice to many digital packets to transfer voice over an efficient pathway of internet. With India’s
developing networking outside of the country, voip would be a great way to make
communication easier and simple. During August 2009, The Department of Telecom (DoT) gave
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permission to VoIP in India but the guidelines were not mentioned at that time. The internet
service providers that need the licenses for VoIP must agree to share 9% of their annual revenue
to the government. Later, the telecom providers during 2009 either wired or wireless service
providers acquired their licenses for telephony internet.
Expected Changes in the Telecommunication Industry of India
1.159 billion Mobile phone subscribers by 2013Expected to reach a size of US$ 78.3
billion by 2012 with a growth rate of 26% and to generate job for about 10 million
people.
The low cost of broadband will help in the growth of broadband in India (Internet World
Stats., 2010).
Indian IT industry is taking initiatives in giving out computers below 10,000 Rs.
One of the trade groups, GSMA Ltd has predicted that by 2014 India’s will have 150
million 3G connections (NaukriHub, 2010).
Challenges /Problems identified
One of the major problems that are identified in the Indian telecommunication market is
less growth rate of internet users compared to the number of mobile phone subscribers. One
of the major reasons behind this trend is the growth people who use net from their mobile
phones not but not from computers BSNL holds more than half of the internet market share,
which may result them evolving as a monopoly in the coming years (Bruce Einhorn, 2007).
We doubt whether BSNL would turn out to the AT & T in India. Though the service
providers offer “handsome” offers for their customers, a lot of times these offers are unmet.
Furthermore, there are other infrastructure constraints such as low-quality cables that do not
support broad band which has resulted in the low broadband penetration rate in India.
Talking about the policies and regulations India has adopted in the telecommunication
industry, the reforms have happened over a long period of time. With the introduction of new
technologies, the consumer’s demand for better services and applications leaves a question of
how much the Indian service providers can introduce in the telecommunication market and
who all can afford it. One of the other challenges is the lack of infrastructure in the semi –
rural and rural areas of the country which makes the life of the service providers miserable.
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Spectrum management is one of the huge problems in the Indian telecommunication
industry. Because of limited availability of spectrum, some of the companies cannot enter
into the Indian market that prevents healthy competition in the Indian telecommunication
market.
Recommendations
According to the reports, the rural tele-density is only 5% where as the urban tele-density
is 50%. This gap should be bridged by providing technological infrastructure in the rural
parts of the country.
India should focus on cellular games and technological innovations like internet protocol
services for the growth of the industry in the coming days (Frost and Sullivan , 2009).
Indian customers should be provided with adequate choices of mobile phones rather than
bundling the mobile phones with a few options of applications and the telephone service
providers should provide quality services to its customers.
The mobile phone companies should not sell their customer information to third parties.
The market should be opened so that all the service providers will get to provide services
to the consumers, resulting in fair competition among service providers.
In India, a large amount money, about 5.5 billion dollars in the USO Fund remained
unutilized. The reason for this is the inflexible rules by the government regarding usage
of funds. However, the government is planning to provide broadband connections within
two years to about 2.5 lakh panchayats throughout the country (Kalyan Parbat, 2010).
In order to attain this, rules of USO Fund are being modified constantly to increase the
rural penetration of telephone services. In addition to that, government should have a
control over the usage of subsidies provided to the service providers. The government
should make sure that the subsidies are being used properly otherwise people will not get
the benefits.
The system of managing USO Fund should be transparent, flexible, autonomic and
responsible in order to accomplish tele-density of 100% in India (Moni, 2010)
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India, being a fastest growing telecommunication industry, faces a wide range of
challenges that are related to policies, technologies and consumer services. The adoption of the
above mentioned recommendations may help in overcoming these challenges and to emerge the
Indian telecommunication industry like the other developed nations.
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