INDIAN TELECOM INDUSTRY AT A GLANCE IN 2018- 2019 Current Scenario
India is currently the world’s second-largest telecommunications market with a subscriber base of 1.20 billion and has registered strong growth in the past decade and half. The Indian mobile economy is growing rapidly and will contribute substantially to India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to report prepared by GSM Association (GSMA) in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
As of January 2019, India has witnessed a 165 per cent growth in app downloads in the past two years with 560.01 million internet subscribers, as of September 2018, India ranks as the world’s second largest market in terms of total internet users.
Moreover, last year, India surpassed USA to become the second largest market in terms of number of app downloads. The country remained as the world’s fastest growing market for Google Play downloads in the second and third quarter of 2018.
Over the next five years, rise in mobile-phone penetration and decline in data costs will add 500 million new internet users in India, further improving the telecommunication industry.
Investments
The industry has attracted FDI worth US$ 32.45 billion during the period April 2000 to December 2018, according to the data released by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
Industry Forecast
Revenues from the telecom equipment sector are expected to grow to US$ 26.38 billion by 2020. The number of internet subscribers in the country is expected to double by 2021 to 829 million and overall IP traffic is expected to grow 4-fold at a CAGR of 30 per cent by 2021.
The National Digital Communications Policy 2018 has envisaged attracting investments worth US$ 100 billion in the telecommunications sector by 2022. The Indian Mobile Value-Added Services (MVAS) industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18.3 per cent during the forecast period 2015–2020 and reach US$ 23.8 billion by 2020.
