About ET-ICT 2009

Faced with the fastest growing telecom market anywhere in the world, Indian Government has identified the need to invest heavily in key areas including essential infrastructure.

India today offers the most exciting growth opportunities in the telecom sector which has now emerged as the world’s fastest telecom sector. With a base of more than 325 million mobile subscribers, India has become the second largest wireless network in the world. From a teledensity of a mere 5% in March 2003, the Indian Telecom sector is now over 32%. The gigantic size of the telecom market in India stems from the fact that there is still opportunity to provide connectivity to 70% of the population mainly in small cities, towns and rural areas, and broadband connectivity to a majority of population.

India driven by an economy that has been growing at over 9% for the last three years, with it’s changing demographics alongwith strong domestic markets, is attracting the attention of major global organizations, resulting in strong foreign investments in the country. Globally telecom sector players are coming to terms with saturation in developed countries and looking at newer streams of growth from emerging countries.

With the recent issuance of guidelines for 3G and Broadband Wireless Access, broadband in India is likely to receive and impetus. The advent of 3G services is likely to result in a rise in data usage. The high Minutes of Usage clubbed with low ARPU has led to operators innovating their service delivery such as network outsourcing, network sharing and micro prepaid schemes that have enabled them to work around the limitations of the Indian market.

The Government of India has kept a target of reaching 650 million subscribers for mobile and fixed telephony by year 2012.

Going forward, operators will have to differentiate their services and in doing so, VAS offers them a strong platform on which to build their strategy. Also opening will be the opportunity of Virtual Mobile Operator.

The ET ICT Expo 2009 Trade Fair and Conference was launched in direct response to the strong demand across the region for an event that brings together international manufacturers and suppliers who offer the latest products, services and technology for the industry.