Telecom Infrastructure

Executive Summary

The development of the telecom sector in India is crucial for the continuation of the Indian economies growth story. With more than a million new mobile users being added every month, the pressure on the telecom infrastructure is being felt more so than ever before. This sector is facing many constraints including issues related to policy decisions like that of the spectrum, as well as physical infrastructure problems, as being felt in the rural sector, where penetration is very low and is most likely to be the next frontier for mobile service providers to pursue.

Telecom sector and its components have been identified and the major constraints and opportunities that they face have been studied. The requirements felt by the customer in the urban as well as the rural sector have been analyzed and how they are being satisfied have also been studied, like those of appearance, knowledge and courtesy, performance and responsiveness of service providers. Taking a village from Haryana as an example, the demand of the rural people have been studied and compared with that of the urban sector relating to the infrastructure issues. The various constraints have been studied under the problems being faced on the fronts of hardware, software, services, human resource, policies, laws and other regulations as well as well as shortcomings in technology.

While analyzing the opportunities for infrastructure growth in the telecom sector, the foreign participation and its impact has been explored as well as the pro active role of the government and its policy decisions to encourage FDI and involvement and foreign participation in equity and other investment ventures, as India is coming across as a lucrative investment opportunity for foreign players in this regard. The huge untapped rural market and its potential in catering for the need for better and more advanced