Telecommunications in India - Sectors - Telephony - Mobile Telephony

Mobile Telephony

See also: List of mobile network operators of India, List of countries by number of mobile phones in use, and List of mobile network operators

In August 1995, Chief Minister of West Bengal, Shri Jyoti Basu ushered in the cellphone revolution in India by making the first call to Union Telecom Minister Sukhram. Sixteen years later 4th generation services were launched in Kolkata.

With a subscriber base of more than 929 million, the Mobile telecommunications system in India is the second largest in the world and it was thrown open to private players in the 1990s. GSM was comfortably maintaining its position as the dominant mobile technology with 80% of the mobile subscriber market, but CDMA seemed to have stabilised its market share at 20% for the time being. By May 2012 the country had 929 million mobile subscribers, up from 350 million just 40 months earlier. The mobile market was continuing to expand at an annual rate in excess of 40% coming into 2010.

According to data provided by Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora, as of 30 November 2012, India has 7,36,654 base transceiver stations (2G GSM & CDMA, and 3G). Of those, 96,212 base transceiver stations provide 3G mobile and data services. Out of India's 640 districts, 610 districts are covered by 3G services as of 30 November 2012.

The country is divided into multiple zones, called circles (roughly along state boundaries). Government and several private players run local and long distance telephone services. Competition has caused prices to drop and calls across India are one of the cheapest in the world. The rates are supposed to go down further with new measures to be taken by the Information Ministry. In September 2004, the number of mobile phone connections crossed the number of fixed-line connections and presently dwarfs the wireline segment by a ratio of around 20:1. The mobile subscriber base has grown by a factor of over a hundred and thirty, from 5 million subscribers in 2001 to over 929 million subscribers as of May 2012. India primarily follows the GSM mobile system, in the 900 MHz band. Recent operators also operate in the 1800 MHz band. The dominant players are Airtel, Reliance Infocomm, Vodafone, Idea cellular and BSNL/MTNL. There are many smaller players, with operations in only a few states. International roaming agreements exist between most operators and many foreign carriers. The government allowed Mobile number portability (MNP) which enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another. India is divided into 22 telecom circles:

Telecom circle	Wireline subscriber base in million(May 2012)	Wireless subscriber base in million(May 2012)	Teledensity (May 2012)
Andhra Pradesh	2.33	66.6	80.46
Assam	0.20	14.6	47.7
Bihar & Jharkhand	0.56	62.97	48.37
Delhi	2.9	42.95	239.91
Gujarat & Daman & Diu	1.82	54.32	92.56
Haryana	0.59	23.00	90.86
Himachal Pradesh	0.30	7.41	112.29
Jammu and Kashmir	0.20	6.57	56.92
Karnataka	2.48	56.63	98.22
Kerala & Lakshadweep	3.18	34.51	107.85
Kolkata	1.18	25.25	Not available*
Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh	1.13	53.30	55.38
Maharashtra & Goa (excluding Mumbai )	2.64	71.00	96.71 *
Mumbai*	3.0	35.93	Not available *
North East ^**	0.25	8.76	64.74
Orissa	0.40	26.27	64.73
Punjab	1.44	31.17	110.22
Rajastan	1.14	49.52	73.26
Tamil Nadu(including Chennai since 2005)	3.16	78.96	118.29
Uttar Pradesh(East)	1.20	77.74	62.65(Combined)*
Uttar Pradesh(West) & Uttarakhand	0.79	55.12	62.65(Combined)*
West Bengal(excluding Kolkata)***	0.62	46.79	80.56 *

^* Population statistics are available state-wise only. ^** North east circle includes Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, & Tripura ^*** West Bengal circle includes Andaman-Nicobar and Sikkim