Indian telecom firms' share drops 30 percent

Thursday, 09 December 2004, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: The share of public sector companies in the country's booming telecom market has fallen by almost 30 percentage points in a matter of 30 months, thanks to competition from the private sector. Giving data on the country's telecom sector, Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran informed the Rajya Sabha Thursday the overall share of public sector companies had declined from 85 percent in March 2002 to 56 percent in October. "The decline in the overall share has been because of increasing competition and greater participation of private operators providing telecom services," Maran said in a written reply. The minister noted that while the share of state-run firms in fixed phones had dropped from 98.65 percent to 91.39 percent, their share in the mobile market had improved from 3.98 percent to 20.21 percent during the period under review. Maran said the public and private sector companies have been set a target of providing 100 million phone connections by 2007 and expected the state-run companies to contribute substantially to the target. "It has been planned that the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd would provide about 47 million phones by 2007. In this regard, we are taking necessary steps to organise their procurement plans, marketing strategy and fund requirement."
Source: IANS
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