Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Sunday, Jan 27, 2008
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Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Sunday, Jan 27, 2008 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version |
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Telecommunications Industry & Economy - Rural Development Info-Tech - Regulatory Bodies & Rulings
Thomas K. Thomas New Delhi, Jan. 26 Far from being considered as a social obligation, offering telecom services in rural areas has now become the hot spot for private telecom operators. Nearly 75 per cent of the mobile users in the villages are now owned by private operators as cellular phones catch the imagination of rural consumers. Until now, state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd was known to be the only significant rural telecom operator in the country. According to numbers compiled by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, nearly 21 per cent of the mobile user base now reside in the villages of India, where a few years ago none of the operators wanted to venture. As on September 2007, out of the 209 million mobile users in the entire country, 43 million were in rural areas. Rural mobile user base is more than the number of total fixed line telephone subscribers in the country, which has dwindled down to around 35 million. Bharti Airtel, which had 48 million mobile users in September 2007, had 9.80 million subscribers coming from rural areas. Nearly 27 per cent of Vodafone Essar’s subscriber base is from the hinterlands. Analysts said that the share of rural telecom consumers will continue to increase as operators have initiated an aggressive roll-out plan to cover remote areas of the country. This is primarily driven by a slump in the growth rate of mobile user base in the metro and urban areas. According to the data released by the Cellular Operators Association of India Circle C and Circle B States such as Bihar, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab are showing better growth rates compared to the metros. Therefore, most of the mobile operators are investing heavily in setting up infrastructure in these circles. Market watchers also pointed out that with as many as five new operators planning a pan- Indian network, they will be banking on the unconnected villages to get them afoot into the market. The Government has set a target of 500 million telephone users by 2010, of which about 200 million is expected to come from the rural areas. The telecom regulator has suggested a number of initiatives to make mobile connection attractive, including lower entry cost to make it more affordable. The casualty, however, has been the fixed line telephones. Despite various subsidies from the Universal Services Obligation fund, the number of fixed line telephone users in villages are decreasing as consumers are increasingly preferring to go wireless. TRAI mulls lower mobile charges for rural areas Mobile goes rural Pvt telecom operators vying for rural areas Govt gets aggressive bids for rural mobile project More Stories on : Telecommunications | Rural Development | Regulatory Bodies & Rulings | Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd
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