The urban teledensity of India has been rising consistently for last five years. In 2008 the urban teledensity   was 60%, which increased to 85 % in March 2009 and the recent reports shows that India has reached the 100% landmark of urban teledensity, which means the number of mobile in urban area is at par with the population. The main reason behind reaching this landmark is fight of price war between different service providers, which eventually brought the price to that level, which is in reach of everyone living in urban areas.
However, the fact is that we have one person having several sim cards/mobile phones and the data of 100% Urban teledensity is not true. There is poor and marginalized population which is still deprived of mobile phones. For those who keen to know about the data of Urban teledensity would be amazed to know that Himachal Pradesh is having the highest urban teledensity of 219% , whereas regions which are considered developed are lagging behind, Kerala is at 2nd place followed by  Delhi(3rd) Chennai(4th) and Mumbai(5th).
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The Indian telecom industry has reached the level that looks at maturity and directs to the consolidation with an overall teledensity of more than 50% and with Urban India having more than 100%, indicates the satiation of the mobile needs of the Indian population.
Penetration of multiple sims nearing 60% at various urban regions, indicate the ease of getting new connections and the maturity of Indian consumers to make the best use of the available operators across.
Declining ARPU followed by increasing the usage of mobile customers, across circles are yet again enforcing that the end user of the country are none the less becoming sharper and the competitors closer towards their peak.
Not to forget, the inability of new operators to establish in India (like Uninor in the Northern India), alongwith the bailing out of existing operators like virgin (being taken over by TATA) establish the point of Indian Telecom industry being not a very lucrative industry anymore. Also the expansion, currently being done without much investment into the network and instead getting into the network sharing basis, also reflects the lack of confidence of the new investors and operators.
But the scenario with the Indian Telecom Industry, isn’t just as bleak as it seems, there are various future interventions, which are expected to lighten up the scenario once again.
With the upcoming Mobile Number Portability across the country, the new operators coming to India, will have an edge in competing with the existing established telecom giants. This relieves the investors seeking to enter the country and give them the ability to stand parallel to existing players.
Also, already present 3G with BSNL and expected launch across circles by other operators towards the end of 2010 is another milestone that the industry is planning for. With this launch, Indian users will upgrade to online tv, online gaming, video conferencing etc. DATA or GPRS would bring the shimmer and shine back to the industry and brighten up the scenario once again.
Finally, coming up with yet cheaper handsets although being routed through the notorious Chinese labels is an established fact which brings the mobile phone closer to the weakest section across country.
Thus all said and done, although the Indian Telecom Industry seems to reach its level of maturity and climax, but the expected changes and developments already around the corner are once again expected to make the future bright.
The writer of this article, Atul Jagga, is a telecom revenue lead and can be reached at jagga.atul@gmail.com