India has the world's 2nd largest telecommunications market after China the market segment of wireless phones are 98% with over 1.21 billion telecom subscribers by August 2017.
Regulations in Indian telecom industry started in 1999 after the government introduced New Technology Policy (NTP). Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was established in 1997 under the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act. The big three service providers are Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular. With huge competition between companies, the country has one of the lowest call rates in the world. The recent player JIO has showered internet and call offers to new subscribers, and all others followed it making the country as world's third largest Internet user base. As per the Department of Telecommunication of India (DoT) statistics, India has more than 303 million internet connections.
Last year India hit the billion mobile phone subscriber as per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India data. With the introduction of VOIP calls from many instant messaging apps the cost of data packs increased a lot, for 1 GB internet 3G, it was 250 INR, and for 4G LTE, it was 300+. With Jio entrance into the market, all telecom operators slashed the rate to stay in the competition. Jio has offered 1-year welcome plan which includes unlimited free voice, texts, and data for 1 year. When Jio announced its new plan, the shares of its competitors went rock bottom resulting 3000 Crores loss in Bombay stock exchange - BSE. Due to huge competition between companies, they are offering cheap data, and voice packs to customers. Due to this, the companies are incurring losses. and to avoid losses they are merging with each other to support one another in their strong points.
Top telecom companies after mergers in India
(In terms of Subscribers)
- Vodafone + Idea
- Bharti Airtel
- Reliance + Aircel
- Jio Infocomm
- BSNL
There is a debate on what will be the future of Indian telecom industry after the entrance of Jio; it is a fact that it has captured the maximum market in India and increase competition of mobile usage particularly internet in rural areas. However, competitors like Airtel, Idea, Vodafone promoting that it is given an unfair advantage and has disrupted the telecom market entirely because prices for all products have slashed more than half and everyone is adjusted with their profits and the market in future. But the fact is it has provided excellent benefits to the customers and ultimately increase telecom market penetration in India.