India's telecommunication network is the second largest in the world by number of telephone users (both fixed and mobile phones) with over 1,337.54 million subscribers as of April 2026.
Major sectors of the Indian telecommunication industry are the telephone, internet, and television broadcast industries in the country which are involved in an ongoing process of developing into a next-generation network, increasingly employing an extensive array of modern network infrastructure such as digital telephone exchanges, network switching subsystems, media gateways and signaling gateways at the core, interconnected by a wide variety of transmission systems using optical fiber or microwave radio relay networks. The access network, which connects the subscriber to the core, is highly diversified with different copper-pair, optical fiber and wireless technologies. Satellite television, a relatively new broadcasting technology has attained significant popularity in the Television segment. The introduction of private FM has boosted radio broadcasting in India. Telecommunication in India has been greatly supported by the Indian National Satellite System system of the country, one of the largest domestic satellite systems in the world. India possesses a diversified communications system, which links all parts of the country by telephone, Internet, radio, television, and satellite. India's participation in global telecommunications and spectrum policy discussions is supported by the ITU-APT Foundation of India (IAFI), a sector member of ITU-R, ITU-T, and ITU-D.
The Indian telecom industry underwent a high rate of market liberalisation and growth since the 1990s and has now become the world's most competitive and one of the fastest growing telecom markets.
Telecommunication has supported the socioeconomic development of India and has played a significant role in narrowing down the rural-urban digital divide to an extent. It has also helped to increase the transparency of governance with the introduction of e-governance in India. The government has pragmatically used modern telecommunication facilities to deliver mass education programmes for rural communities in India.
According to the London-based telecom trade body GSMA, the telecom sector accounted for 6.5% of India's GDP in 2015, or about , and supported direct employment for 2.2 million people in the country. GSMA estimates that the Indian telecom sector will contribute to the economy and support 3 million direct jobs and 2 million indirect jobs by 2020.
In today's period of progress and wealth, technological modernization is increasingly seen as a foreseen necessity for every country. With better technology and more competition from established businesses, telecommunications has entered a new era of development. The continuous rise of the mobile industry is linked to technological advancements in the telecommunications sector. The service providers' primary goal is to build a loyal customer base by measuring their performance and maintaining existing consumers in order to profit from their loyalty. The purpose of the paper is to address these concerns.
History Beginning
Prof. S. P. Chakravarti is known as the father of electronics and telecommunications engineering in India. He started electronics and telecommunications education, training and research in India.
Telecommunications in India began with the introduction of telegraphy. The Indian postal and telecom sectors are one of the world's oldest. In 1850, the first experimental electric telegraph line was started between Kolkata and Diamond Harbour. In 1851, it was opened for the use of the East India Company. The Posts and Telegraphs department occupied a small corner of the Public Works Department at that time.
The construction of of telegraph lines was started in November 1853. These connected Kolkata (then Calcutta) and Peshawar in the north; Agra, Mumbai (then Bombay) through Sindwa Ghats, and Chennai (then Madras) in the south; Ooty and Bengaluru. William O'Shaughnessy, who pioneered the Telegraphy and telephone in India, belonged to the Public Works Department, and worked towards the development of telecom throughout this period. A separate department was opened in 1854 when telegraph facilities were opened to the public.
In 1880, two telephone companies, namely the Oriental Telephone Company Ltd. and the Anglo-Indian Telephone Company Ltd. approached the Government of India to establish a telephone exchange in India. Permission was refused on the grounds that the establishment of telephone networking was a government monopoly and that the government itself should undertake the work. In 1881, the government later reversed its earlier decision and a licence was granted to the Oriental Telephone Company Limited of England for opening telephone exchanges at Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Ahmedabad and the first formal telephone service was established in the country. On 28 January 1882, Major E. Baring, Member of the Governor General of India's Council declared open the Telephone Exchanges in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. The exchange in Calcutta named the "Central Exchange" had a total of 93 subscribers in its early stage. Later that year, Bombay also witnessed the opening of a telephone exchange.
Further developments and milestones
1901 – First wireless telegraph station established between Sagar Island and Sandhead. Pre-1902 – Cable telegraph. 1907 – First Central Battery of telephones introduced in Kanpur. 1913–1914 – First Automatic Exchange installed in Shimla. 1927 – Radio-telegraph system between the UK and India, with Imperial Wireless Chain beam stations at Khadki and Daund. Inaugurated by Lord Irwin on 23 July by exchanging greetings with King George V. 1933 – Radiotelephone system inaugurated between the UK and India. 1947 - First Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering department started in India at the Government Engineering College, Jabalpur. 1951 - First TV transmitter of India was installed at the Government Engineering College, Jabalpur, on 24 October.Annual report 2018 jecjabalpur.ac.in 1953 – 12 channel carrier system introduced. 1960 – First subscriber trunk dialling route commissioned between Lucknow and Kanpur. 1975 – First PCM system commissioned between Mumbai City and Andheri telephone exchanges. 1976 – First digital microwave junction. 1979 – First optical fibre system for local junction commissioned at Pune. 1980 – First satellite earth station for domestic communications established at Sikandarabad, U.P. 1983 – First analogue Stored Programme Control exchange for trunk lines commissioned at Mumbai. 1984 – C-DOT established for indigenous development and production of digital exchanges. 1995 – First mobile telephone service started on non-commercial basis on 15 August 1995 in Delhi. 1995 – Internet Introduced in India starting with Laxmi Nagar, Delhi 15 August 1995 2020 – The PM-WANI framework envisages provision of Broadband through Public Wi-Fi Hotspot providers.
Development of Broadcasting: Radio broadcasting was initiated in 1927 but became state responsibility only in 1930. In 1937 it was given the name All India Radio and since 1957 it has been called Akashvani.Schwartzberg, Joseph E. (2008), India, Encyclopædia Britannica Limited duration of television programming began in 1959, and complete broadcasting followed in 1965. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting owned and maintained the audio-visual apparatus—including the television channel Doordarshan—in the country prior to the economic reforms of 1991. In 1997, an autonomous body was established in the name of Prasar Bharti to take care of the public service broadcasting under the Prasar Bharti Act. All India Radio and Doordarshan, which earlier were working as media units under the Ministry of I&B became constituents of the body.
Pre-liberalisation statistics: While all the major cities and towns in the country were linked with telephones during the British period, the total number of telephones in 1948 numbered only around 80,000. Post-independence, growth remained slow because the telephone was seen more as a status symbol rather than being an instrument of utility. The number of telephones grew leisurely to 980,000 in 1971, 2.15 million in 1981 and 5.07 million in 1991, the year economic reforms were initiated in the country.
Liberalisation and privatisation
The liberalisation of the Indian telecommunications industry started in 1981 when then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed contracts with Alcatel CIT of France to merge with the state owned Telecom Company (ITI), in an effort to set up 5 million telecom lines per year. Soon after the contracts were signed, the policy was left unfufilled due to political opposition. Attempts to liberalise the telecommunication industry were continued by the following government under the prime-minister-ship of Rajiv Gandhi. He invited Sam Pitroda, a US-based Non-resident Indian (NRI) and a former Rockwell International executive to set up a Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) which manufactured electronic telephone exchanges in India for the first time. Sam Pitroda had a significant role as a consultant and adviser in the development of telecommunication in India.
In 1985, the Department of Telecom (DoT) was separated from Indian Post & Telecommunication Department. DoT was responsible for telecom services in entire country until 1986 when Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) were carved out of DoT to run the telecom services of metro cities (Delhi and Mumbai) and international long-distance operations respectively.
The demand for telephones continued to increase and in the 1990s the Indian government was under mounting pressure to open up the telecom sector for private investment as a part of the Liberalisation-Privatisation-Globalisation policies that the government accepted to overcome the severe fiscal crisis and resultant balance of payments issue in 1991. Consequently, private investment in the sector of Value Added Services (VAS) was allowed and cellular telecom sector were opened up for competition from private investments. It was during this period that the Narsimha Rao-led government introduced the National Telecommunications policy (NTP) in 1994 which brought changes in the ownership, service and regulation of the national telecommunications infrastructure. The policy introduced the concept of telecommunication for all and its vision was to expand the telecommunication facilities to all the villages in India. Liberalisation in the basic telecom sector was also envisaged in this policy. They were also successful in establishing joint ventures between state owned telecom companies and international players. Foreign firms were eligible to 49% of the total stake. The multi-nationals were just involved in technology transfer, and not policy making.