In A working group of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17) has said that it expected an investment of Rs 6,50,000 crore during the next plan. According to the working group, of this amount, a total of Rs. 1 lakh crore are expected to arrive from the auction of spectrum and renewal of licences.
Further, the telecom equipment segment is expected to garner Rs 2.85 lakh crore in investments. The upgradation of telecom networks is predicted to be a business worth Rs 1.4 lakh crore and broadband is likely to fetch Rs 1.25 lakh crore in investments during the plan period. The DoT working group has said that all this new investment is related to the massive growth in the subscriber base of various telecom companies.
Extrapolating on the current trends, the working group projects that India will have 1,200 million telephone subscribers by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan. Of the total subscriber base, 25% will consist of 3G and 4G technology users. It also said that by 2017, there would be 175 million broadband subscribers in the country.
According to the figures released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI), as of June 30, 2011, there have been 885.99 million telecom subscribes in India. The number of broadband users is limited to 12.32 Million. So by 2017, there is going to be a sizable improvement in number of users for telephony and broadband, if the working groups predictions are anything to go by.
The DoT working group also states that e-governance, better connectivity and value added services are going to be the major growth drivers in the telecom sector and the industry needs to augment the strength of its telecom network for delivering services to a wider subscriber base.
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