From PCOs To Satcom: Tracing India’s Telecom Journey This World Telecom Day

It was May 17, 1973, and the world was formally celebrating its first World Telecommunication Day. Just a month ago, Motorola had demonstrated the world’s first handheld cellular mobile phone, and with it, the global telecommunications ecosystem had come to life.

In India, the telecom space was still taking baby steps as trunk dialling and PCOs (public call offices as they were called back then) were still the norm. Despite boasting one of the world’s oldest postal and telecom sectors, India was nowhere on the global telecommunication map at that time. 

Five decades later, as India celebrates World Telecommunication and Information Society Day 2024, we foster the world’s second-largest telecom network. Not just this, India was home to 119 Cr telecom users at the end of March 2024.

At the end of 2023, the country had 82 Cr active internet users who consumed an average of 24.1 GB of data a month per user. In total, Indian subscribers consumed 17.4 exabytes (or 17.4 Bn GB) of data last year. 

Fuelling this rapid internet adoption has been the pan-India 4G services that cover most of the country, even as 5G is witnessing a rapid rollout. Banking on high-speed internet and dirt-cheap data prices, the country’s digital economy has witnessed a growth explosion, akin to a proverbial supernova.

However, this was not the case a decade ago (around 2015) when the average cost of one GB of data was around INR 226, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data. Interestingly, this cost first declined to INR 75 the next year, INR 19.35 per GB in 2017, and INR 11.78 in 2018.

As data costs continued to plummet, the nation’s digital prowess soared, so much so that today we are the world’s third-largest new-age tech ecosystem. 

The Era Of Cheap Mobile Data, Free Calls

It was September 2016, and mobile phone users were queuing up in droves for a SIM card. At the centre of this mania was Reliance Jio, which offered free calling and data usage to its customers across the country.

Between 2016 and 2019, Reliance Jio 4G spread like wildfire. It added 90 Mn users in 2019, bringing its total subscriber base to 370 Mn in just three years. At the end of March 2024, the company was commanding a market share of more than 40.3%. 

Thanks to the fierce competition ignited by Reliance Jio, other telecommunication companies were forced to significantly reduce their data prices. Those unable to adapt faced harsh consequences, either went bankrupt, exited the Indian market entirely, or were acquired by larger players. 

Some of these names included Aircel, Videocon Telecom, MTS India, Telenor India, and Tata Docomo, among others. Vodafone and Idea were forced to merge amid the Jio onslaught.

While the competition ignited by Jio paved the way for cheap data and free voice calls, it was time for 5G to shine. 

The Arrival Of 5G 

While 3G and 4G brought faster connectivity on the move for Indians, 5G, launched in October 2022, aimed to upend the entire landscape by offering data speeds to the tune of 1 Gigabyte per second (GBPS), with the number theoretically going all the way up to 10 GBPS. 

The speeds offered by the 5G network opened an endless world of possibilities. For instance, online gamers could now enjoy low latency and little lags, while experts also cited potential use cases in deploying autonomous vehicles and the world of metaverse. 

Such has been the chatter about this new technology that 5G spectrum auctions fetched the government a record INR 1.5 Lakh Cr in 2022. And the telecom operators spent billions of dollars to acquire these licences.

Since then, the 5G rollout has seen Airtel and Reliance Jio spend extensively on expanding its network of towers to offer pan-India 5G access so that more and more netizens could upgrade from their outdated 3G or 4G networks. 

Pertinent to note that Vodafone-Idea (Vi) has been a laggard in terms of the 5G rollout and expects to start the process by year-end or next year. 

On the agenda of telcos is a new breed of data-guzzling urban Indian users with their novel needs. But, it could take some time before the Indian hinterlands get a whiff of 5G. To bring the internet to these treacherous terrains, the government seems to have much going on behind the scenes. 

Making Way For Satcom & India’s 6G Leadership 

In February 2023, the Centre said that more than 45,000 villages across the country still had no 4G services. Partly to blame for this inaccessibility are the country’s tough-to-reach terrains, posing mammoth challenges for Indian telcos. 

In the past, the Centre has made no qualms about its ‘Antyodaya’ approach – ensuring the development of the last person in society. So, how does the internet reach areas where it is commercially non-viable and physically not feasible?

Here is where satellite communication, or satcom, comes into the picture. This futuristic technology skips the need for extensive capital expenditure and can be accessed via on-ground satellite access stations.

Owing to these considerations, the Centre recently announced that satcom spectrum will be available without auctioning and there will be administrative allocation of the licence. This could spur the entry of both global as well as domestic players in the segment and foster India’s spacetech ecosystem.

With an eye on the future, the country aims to lead the world in 6G development. To achieve this, the Centre has constituted a dedicated 6G task force, launched the country’s first 6G test bed at IIT-Madras and even unveiled the ‘Bharat 6G Mission’ roadmap to turn India into a 6G hub.

All this has culminated in one of the world’s biggest telecom revolutions, with India at the centre of it. But, all lofty ambitions aside, the theme of World Telecom Day 2024 seems to offer a guiding light for India’s roadmap ahead — “Digital Innovation for Sustainable Development”.

As India treads the path of growth and digital transformation, the country seems to be under the spotlight as the next wave of innovation in the telecom space awaits.