Economy & Business

New Delhi: As the world is celebrating World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, also known as WTISD today, it is useful to delve into the journey of telecom expansion in India. The country boasts a 99 percent coverage footprint in 4G, with over 6 lakh villages covered and about 4.42 lakh 5G BTS, according to the data released by the Ministry of Communications. The evolution of the telecom industry in India can be categorized into 3 parts, the first stage till 1990 during the state-owned era, the second, 2000, which marked the advent of private players; and, the third stage from 2000 to 2010 and till date. Indian telecom sector, owned by the state, began services with a manual telephone exchange in 1882 in Kolkata. The telecom industry flourished only after the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) was separated from the Indian Post and Telecommunication Department in 1985. DoT started running as a model agency for telecom services of the entire country till 1986. In the following years, the government created MTNL and VSNL for telecom operations in metro cities like Delhi and Mumbai. Subsequently, MTNL and VSNL were carved out of the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) for the separation of its policy functions and telecom operations in metro cities like Mumbai and Delhi and International long-distance operations. This gives rise to the 2nd part of the telecom industry in India in which the government allows private players to enter the Telecom Industry. Cellular services were first launched in 1995 in Kolkata. Another milestone during this era was the formation of telecom regulator TRAI in 1997. TRAI was formed to regulate the fair environment between operators and subscribers. In 2000, TDSAT was constituted to settle di ...