India's telecom industry grew nearly 15 per cent in 2010-11: survey

The telecom services industry in the country, which faced grave accusations of scams in last financial year, put up a brave show, growing at 14.9 per cent and posting revenues of Rs1,66,168 crore in FY10-11, up from previous year's earnings of Rs1,44,600 crore.

The number of active subscribers in the country has crossed 501 million, while the number of SIM cards in use rose to 812 million, according to a survey by telecom industry journal Voice&Data.

Telecom services revenue include revenue from cellular, fixed line, national long distance (NLD), international long distance (ILD), broadband, V-SAT services.

The cellular services market, the largest among all the communication services offered in the country, grew at 16.6 per cent to cross the Rs1,00,000 crore revenue milestone (Rs102,230 crore) in FY'11 from Rs87,680 crore the year before, the survey showed.

Revenues from fixed lines, the only significant means of telecommunication until mid 1990s, continued to decline both in terms of number of connections and revenues (Rs11,602 crore, a Y-o-Y decline of 15.6 per cent).

"The recent tariff hike will help the industry invest in telecom infrastructure that delivers better customer experience through improved quality of service," according to Ibrahim Ahmad, group editor of Voice&Data.
The survey 'V&D 100' Volume 1 covered over 500 telecom companies in India spanning carrier equipment, enterprise communication equipment, and user device manufacturers.