Perspectives on India's Telecom Industry
Introduction As of 2021, India has 82.53 crores internet users second only to China which has close to 99 crores subscribers. And yet, it represents only 61% of India's population ( wiki )- which underlines the growth potential of India's telecom industry. Developed countries like the United States have an internet usage rate of 95.5% of the total population. As per TRAI's press release of 30th June 2021, there are a total of 1202.56 million subscriptions in India and the breakup is shown below: The chart below shows that the proportion of wire-line subscriptions has been moderating over the years. In terms of tele-density which measures the number of subscriptions for every hundred individuals living in an area the total density for India as of June 30 2021 as per TRAI is 88.07%. Again the more interesting aspect to note is that Urban India has a tele-density of 140.86% whereas rural India has a tele-density of 60.10%. So the potential for growth in rural India i