** Telecommunication in India - Pt II **

Nov 25, 2007

I had mentioned in my previous series that both Rajiv Gandhi, the then PM of India, and Sam Pitorda were the two central figures for the Telecom revolution in India. In the early 80s, in India, telephones were considered a sign of luxury and it existed only in the residence of higher income group people. Sam Pitorda stepped in to change the whole scenario. He formed the C-Dot, which brought in the "yellow board"-ed PCOs across the nation. C-Dot gave to India the local telephone meters that generated bills for every local call (earlier it was centralised and only Telephone exchanges generated bills.)

It was in the late 80s that PCOs became too famous in India. It spread across India like a wildfire. It, in my view, served two distinct benefits. The much wanted communication network - the prime purpose and also was a source of livelihood to a lot of many people. (Importantly, it helped a lot of handicapped people who were seen maintaining PCOs which gave them a source of livelihood).

If India could boast of its IT today, it is solely because of the initiatives of Rajiv & Sam. Rajiv was the one who sowed the seeds of our today's growth. Digitalisation and Satellite communication helped the faster growth of Telecommunication in India.

The next big change came in the early 90s. It was during PV Narasimha Rao's regime that the Telecommunication sector was set free from the Govt monopoly. Private operators were allowed to try out their hands. This led to the growth of Mobile communication in India and it also helped India get some well needed foreign investment. Initially, it was started in just four metros and even in metros, the number of operators were restricted to just two. During the initial stages the call charges were exhorbitant. Every minute of local call cost around Rs.24/- for outgoing and Rs.18/- for incoming (I could be completely wrong with this figures - however, they are just figurative!).

The Local demand in market picked up as the cost of handsets and call charges slowly came down. And, as the costs came down, the demand went up and higher. It was a wonderful economic cycle that helped the uptrend of the Mobile technology in India. Today, the Mobile Telephone market in India is too big with more than 100 million subscribers. The total number of people who earn their bread through this Industry is huge (the Service providers, handset manufacturers, field installation folks, etc. Add to that the shopkeepers who do sell the recharge cards and the roadside vendors who sell those covers, key pads and all such simple things).

The Telecom revolution in India is true for all of us to witness. It had happened just because of the vision that Rajiv Gandhi and Sam Pitorda had.