Telecom

Executive Summary

It is size that is shaping business plans for telecom companies. And so, with India and China registering the highest market growth that is where companies in this sector are routing to. The difference between countries like India and China and markets in North America is that the average revenue per user (ARPU) in this part of the world is small. Telecom equipment made for high ARPU countries like North America would not suit India

A growing breed of companies is coming to India not just for its technical talent but for business gains. In China too, companies made forays in order to leverage the low cost of manufacturing, but stayed on attracted by the sheer size of the market. Every interested party will be forced to innovate in order to meet the needs of ballooning growth in the India and China markets

Discarding the вЂ?one size fits all’ practice has been a step in this direction. It now believes that the appropriate strategy in the present highly competitive consumer electronics business would be to design a product that would be suitable for a specific market. For instance, “India needs mobile phones that are more appropriate to the Indian conditions.” In a diverse country like India, it is important to offer personalized solutions to specific target segments. “Rural customers in India, for instance, would rather buy a no-frills mobile phone, but one that is sturdy and offers enhanced talk time. The urban market, on the other hand, is looking at mobiles with high end functionality.”

In the middle of this year, China reported 310 million mobile phone users, just around one-quarter of its total population, but already more than the entire population of US. India, with a subscriber base of 45 million, is playing catch up, with mobile phone usage shooting at a phenomenal rate. Together, the opportunity that both these markets represent is so huge that no company that’s part of the mobile phone eco-system can overlook them.

It isn’t just mobile phones. There’s opportunity that cuts across all products, service categories and segments, thanks to the booming population in India and China. Not seeing the opportunity would be suicidal. India and China together account for 2.3 billion, and a middle class that’s growing at a scorching pace.

Philip Dodd, former director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, had said: “The 19th century belonged to Britain, the 20th century belonged to America, and the 21st century is going to belong to Asia, China and India.”

As India and China put an appearance on the radars of global players, a successful deployment of technology products in these countries could in fact attract customers from across the globe. Venture capitalists too agree that there’s a big investment opportunity here.

The paper would discuss the following points in detail:

пÑ"? Telecom growth

пÑ"? What are the factors behind telecom growth?

пÑ"? What are the key impact areas in the industry?

пÑ"? What is the impact of growth?

 Economy

 Society

 Regulators

пÑ"? Why do we need to manage and how do we manage the growth?

Figure 1

Source: ITU

Figure 2

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