Status of Telecommunication in India and Current Challenges in Accelerating Digital Transformation.

1. STATUS OF TELECOMMUNICATION IN
INDIA AND CURRENT CHALLENGES IN
ACCELERATING DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION
MONA GUPTA
SR. ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
VIVEKANANDA INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES, AFFILIATED TO GURU
GOBIND SINGH INDRAPRASTHA UNIVERSITY, DELHI

2. TELECOMMUNICATION
Process of exchanging information such as
voice, data and video transmissions via
electronic technologies like telephones (wired
and wireless), microwave communications, fibre
optics, satellites, radio and television
broadcasting, and the internet

3. TELECOMMUNICATION SERVICES
Telecommunication services include internet
service, wireless service, radio, television, cable,
and satellite television.
For business means web browsing, email, social
media and social networking, web-conferencing,
phone services, file sharing, and more.

4. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF
TELECOMMUNICATION IN INDIA
• Indian telecom industry started in 1851 when the first
operational land lines near Calcutta.
• In 1881, the Telephone services were introduced in India
and telephone services were merged with the postal system
in 1883.
• In 1923, the Indian Radio Telegraph Company (IRT) was
formed.
• In 1947, after the independence, all the foreign
telecommunication companies were nationalised to form the
Posts, Telephone and Telegraph (PTT), a monopoly run by

5. • In India the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs focused in
improving the delivery of telegrams and telexes while other
countries were embracing digital telephony and facsimile
machines.
• Till 31st December, 1984, the Postal Telegraph and
Telephone Services were managed by the Posts and
Telegraphs Department. In January 1985, two separate
departments for the posts and the telecommunications were
created.
• Department of Telecommunications (DOT) was established
which was exclusive provider of domestic and long-distance
service that would be its own regulator (separate from the
postal system).

6. • In 1986, Government has two wholly owned companies which were
created as :
- Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) for internationals and
-Mahanagar Telephone Nigar Limited (MTNL) for service in
metropolitan areas
• MTNL looked after telecommunications operations in two
megacities, Mumbai and Delhi.
• VSNL provided international telecom services in India.
• DoT continued to provide telecommunications operations in all
regions other than Delhi and Mumbai.
• Telecommunication services were not treated to be a necessity that
should be made available to all people across all States in India but
rather a luxury item for few select people.

7. • In the 1990s private sector participation was allowed.
Government allowed private players to provide value added
services (“VAS”) such as paging services.
• In 1994, the government formulated the National Telecom
Policy 1994 (“NTP 1994”) and hence private investment were
brought to bridge the resource gap especially in areas such as
basic services.
• As markets and telecom technologies started converging and
the differences between voice (both fixed and wireless) and
data networks started blurring.
• Cellular service was launched in November 1995 in Kolkata

8. • Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was created in
1997. It was formed to act as a regulator to facilitate the
growth of the telecom sector.
• Government recognized the necessity to separate the
government's policy wing from its operations wing so as to
create a level playing field for private operators. So,
corporatized the operations wing of DoT in October 2000 and
created it as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (“BSNL”) which
operates as a public sector undertaking.
• In 2002, the monopoly of VSNL also came to an end.
Government then issued licenses to select operators to provide
Basic & Cellular Services in India.

9. • Indian Telecom market is mainly divided in to two
major segments namely, the Fixed Service Providers
(FsPs) and the Cellular Service Providers.
• Fixed service provider network comprises land lines,
basic services, domestic and long distance call service.
• In the case of the cellular services India uses GSM
(Global System for Mobile Communications).

10. TELECOM INDUSTRY IN INDIA
• From the holistic point of view telecom industry can be divided
into four sub-sets. They are:
(a) Network Infrastructure companies; Alcatel, Lucent, Cisco,
Ericsson.
(b) Telecom service Providers; Bharati-Airtel, Vodafone, Idea,
Reliance.
(c) Telecom Equipment Manufactures; Nokia, Motorola, Samsung.
(d) Telecom Solutions Providers; Tech-Mahindra, Aricent, IBM
India, Wipro, Sasken.

12. INDUSTRY TRENDS
• In 1999, when the New Telecom Policy was announced, there
were thirteen 2G technology-based private mobile service
providers.
• By 2019, exits and consolidation had reduced the number of
operators to eight. Today, telecom networks are the backbone
of India’s digital economy with 4G technology firmly in situ in
all private networks.
• The country-wide lockdown due to COVID-19 unambiguously
established the centrality of communications in maintaining
economic activity and elevated its growth impacts. The sector’s
contribution to India’s GDP is estimated to have increased by 5

13. A DECADAL VIEW OF THE TELECOM
INDUSTRY
Parameter 1999 2009 2019
Number of Operators 15 21 8
HHI* by Subscribers (by
AGR) 1198
1608
(1790) 2791 (2938)
Primary Services
SMS,
Voice
SMS,
Voice,
Internet
SMS,
Calls,
Internet,
OTT,
Mobile Technology 2G 2G, 3G 2G, 3G ,4G
View of the Telecom Industry
Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) measures market concentration, & a
metric used to determine market competitiveness, AGR- Average Gross
Revenue

14. OTT (OVER THE TOP)PLATFORMS
• OTT, Over The Top, is a streaming media service that offers
content to the viewers online through the internet.
• Currently, the OTT platform has been valued at INR 35 billion
with close to 500 million internet users (also expected to grow
at 8% annually), who spend an average of 40 mins per day
consuming online media content.
• It has been anticipated that by 2022, India would be the
number one in terms of revenue or valuation of digital and OTT
media content.

15. In 2012, we had about 2 OTT media platforms, but now, as of
Jan 2020, the number is about 40. In 8 years, this is an
incredible growth both in terms of a business and an industry.
Some of the key factors are:
• Urbanization and westernization of the population – Gradual
migration to big cities and the culture shift in method and type
of media people consumed
• Access to digital devices – A significant rise in the number of
mobile and other digital device users (around 402 million
smartphone users as of Feb 2020)
• Improved infrastructure – Better bandwidth/net connectivity
• Convenience – USPs like limited advertisements and Pause &
Play options have captured the population.

16. https://community.nasscom.in/communities/digital-transformation/telecom-media-
communities/future-of-ott-in-india.html

17. CURRENT STATUS OF DIGITAL CONNECT
MICA's Centre for Media and Entertainment Studies (CMES), analysed
data and captured the trends between April 2019-March 2020. Some
highlights are:
• India stood second highest with 8.43 hours of video consumption per
week after the United States at 8.55 hours per week.
• Comedy was the most preferred genre by Indians in 2020 across the
OTT platforms.
• MX Player was the highest consumed platform after YouTube.
• Turn towards regional content using a new “hybrid formula” to ride
the wave towards commissioning original content in Hindi as well as
in other regional languages.

18. • In gaming trends in India, Indians played games for 63 billion
minutes, against 42 billion minutes in March 2019, recording a
49 per cent increase.
• Music streaming platforms also recorded an increase of 39.6
per cent.
• Overall, there was an increase of 19 per cent of people being
connected digitally in 2020.
• “As against 3435 million people connected digitally in March
2019, the same was 5677 million digitally in March 2020,” as
per the report.
• The report further estimated that smartphone users in India will

19. CHALLENGES IN ACCELERATING DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION
Challenge 1: Complexity
updates are rolling out so fast that we are unable to fully adopt
the tools we have at our disposal.
How to overcome:
• Get rid of the software you do not need.
• Connect all the platforms in such a way to create a seamless
experience to drive maximum business productivity.

20. Challenge 2: Adopting the Technology
After so much decision-making and employee training the new
software does not turn out to be as expected.
HOW TO OVERCOME
• Use a digital adoption platform (DAP) that will accelerate the
onboarding process, enable self-service support,
• A digital adoption platform (DAP) is software that integrates
completely with a host application in order to help the user learn
the application. It uses walk-throughs, videos, self-help menus,
to guide the user

21. Challenge 3: Shift in the Culture Mindset
Digital transformation is also about changing the way we work
and promoting a digital-first culture.
Need to make sure people are welcome to these changes to
create positive outcomes
HOW TO OVERCOME
• Eliminate tools that are bogging and hampering productivity.
They should feel comfortable working in a new environment.
• Inspire

22. Challenge 4: Pace of Digital Transformation
• Keeping up with the rising trends and the latest technologies.
• Are we ready? Do we have the necessary resources and expertise to
leverage new trends or are we still waiting for our competitors to
adopt them first?
HOW TO OVERCOME
• Instigate a leadership mindset of agility among your team members
• Adequately prepared for upcoming challenges through training and
skill-enhancement courses.
• Create new roles when technology makes human work easier rather
than completely replacing it.
• Foster the culture of collaboration.

23. Challenge 5: Setting Right Priorities
• Sometimes, we even end up setting wrong priorities and
wasting our time and efforts and it negatively affects the
productivity.
HOW TO OVERCOME
• Spend time figuring out what is essential for you. We cannot try
doing everything at once because that will spread your
resources and thin your focus.
• Access your digital adoption strategy to see where you are
lacking.

24. Challenge 6: Ensuring Security
• cyber-attacks.
• Especially during the COVID-19 crises when all the businesses
are moving on the cloud, security has become an essential
priority.
• Invasion of privacy
HOW TO OVERCOME
• Instead of viewing it as a challenge, start perceiving it as a
necessity.
• Follow a proactive approach to security. Instead of wondering
“we could have prevented that” later, it is better if you are
prepared in advance.

25. Challenge 7: Defining the Parameters of Success
• Have you heard about the productivity paradox? It is a term
coined to describe the phenomena that despite the inclusion of
technology, productivity remains stagnant.
• Defining the parameters of success is the biggest digital
transformation challenge.
HOW TO OVERCOME THIS CHALLENGE?
• Define what you want to accomplish with digital
transformation.
• Work on clarifying your vision.
• Set goals that remain universal throughout your journey.

26. REFERENCES
• http://iosrjournals.org/iosr-jbm/papers/Vol16-issue9/Version-
1/D016912536.pdf
• http://www.ijerd.com/paper/vol13-issue9/Version-
4/A130940104.pdf
• https://www.cci.gov.in/sites/default/files/whats_newdocument/Mark
et-Study-on-the-Telecom-Sector-In-India.pdf
• https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/variety/in-india-men-
consume-the-highest-ott-content-in-2020-mica-
report/article34043007.ece
• https://community.nasscom.in/communities/digital-
transformation/telecom-media-communities/future-of-ott-in-
india.html
• https://softobiz.com/digital-transformation-challenges/

27. Thank you