Invest In India
TELECOMMUNICATION
- Indian Telecom Industry has been witnessing exponential growth over a few years due
to affordable tariffs, expanding 3G and 4G network, wider availability, roll out of Mobile
Number Portability (MNP), etc.
- India became the world’s largest smartphone market by crossing 300 million mark in
2016.
- As of January 2019, India has witnessed a 165% growth in app downloads in the past
two years.
- The growth of Telecom Industry is not only taking place in the urban areas but also in
the rural areas, like through the Bharatnet Project in which optical fibres are laid down
to cover about 100000 gram panchayats (villages governing bodies).
- The National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) aims to connect all the 2,50,000 Gram
panchayats in the country and provide 100 Mbps connectivity to all gram panchayats
(GPs). To achieve this, the existing fibres of PSUs (BSNL, Railtel and Power Grid) were
utilised and incremental fibre was laid to connect to Gram Panchayats wherever
necessary.
- 70% of the population stays in rural areas and as of December 2019, rural population
forms 43.5% of the total telephone subscriber base. The rural market would be a key
growth driver in the coming years.
- Number of Internet users expected to reach 829 million by 2021.
- The telecom industry is second largest in the world with subscriber base of over 1.2 bn.
- As of 2019, India had 268 mobile handsets and accessories manufacturing units.
- 100% FDI in telecommunications sector is allowed wherein upto 49% is allowed
through the automatic route and beyond 49%, under the government route.
- FDI of upto 100% permitted for infrastructure providers offering dark fibre, electronic
mail and voice mail.
