TELECOM PENETRATION IN RURAL INDIA: PRESENT SCENARIO, FUTURE CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

Telecommunication Industry is the fastest growing industry in the world. It has a mobile subscriber base of 680 million out of which 68 percent subscribers are from urban areas and the remaining 32 percent is from rural areas. The urban teledensity has reached its saturation point. So, the chances of further growth are more in rural areas. Rural India has undoubtedly immense number of potential telecommunication users. Expansion of telecommunication services in rural areas will strengthen the network and will enable delivering multiple services in communication starved rural areas. Since the prices of both the wireless telephony and communication devices have come down due to overall growth of the industry, there is a huge demand for telecommunication services in rural areas also. In this article an attempt is made to analyse the present dynamics of the telecommunication penetration in rural India along with the further scope of its penetration involving a large number of private firms and also the challenges involved in it