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V. Rishi Kumar

Hyderabad , Dec. 29

AFTER a year of rapid regulatory changes, which had helped achieve a cellular growth of about 1.5 million subscribers a month, the stage is set for much faster growth in 2004. However, the Government will have to come up with a package to support the telecom hardware on the lines of what it had done for the services providers, according to Mr Ravi Sharma, Managing Director, Alcatel India.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Sharma said, "The year 2003 was the most exciting and decisive year for the telecom sector in the country since its opening up about 7-8 years back. With all the regulatory concerns addressed successfully, India is poised for the real growth phase where there is general consensus that people have accepted telecom services as part of life."

"The Government has brought in a series of changes to facilitate the growth of the telecom services sector, it now has to train its attention to the telecom hardware sector. That means offering a package of support like what the services providers were offered by extending tax holiday. This would enthuse the telecom infrastructure providers to invest and develop necessary equipment, leading to a chain reaction and interest the sector.

With volumes in place, some manufacturing units would soon be functioning, if the Government acts upon this," he said.

"The cellular handset market is estimated at about $1.2 to 1.5 billion Euros per annum wherein the total telecom market is estimated at about $5 billion Euros.

Given the segment growth, we expect a minimum of about 30 per cent increase in the handset market. India is emerging as a major market and the Government needs to capitalise on this opportunity," he said.

"While the telecom sector has grown over last eight years, its potential has not been fully tapped. We could add about 1.5 million mobile phones a month. The impact of the growth of telecom sector cannot be compared with that of other sectors. Unlike other sectors, a billion dollar investment in telecom has the potential to bring a spin-off affect that is three times in any other sector," Mr Sharma said.

"Given the current regulatory environment, this can only get better."

"Alcatel is a pure GSM solutions provider and would continue to focus our attention on the GSM services and network where bandwidth applications would be our thrust areas. We expect a good year for both GSM applications as also bandwidth solutions," Mr Sharma said.

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