Telecommunications in India

India's telecommunication network is the second largest in the world by number of telephone users (both fixed and mobile phone) with 1179.49 million subscribers . It has one of the lowest call tariffs in the world enabled by mega telecom operators and hyper-competition among them. India has the world's second-largest Internet user-base with 747.41 million broadband internet subscribers in the country. Major sectors of the Indian telecommunication industry are telephone, internet and television broadcast industry in the country which is in an ongoing process of transforming into Next-generation network, employs an extensive system of modern network elements such as digital telephone exchanges, Network switching subsystem, media gateways and Signaling gateway at the core, interconnected by a wide variety of transmission systems using Optical fiber or Microwave radio relay networks. The access network, which connects the subscriber to the core, is highly diversified with different copper-pair, Optical fiber and wireless technologies. Satellite television, a relatively new broadcasting technology has attained significant popularity in the Television segment. The introduction of private FM has given a fillip to the radio broadcasting in India. Telecommunication in India has greatly been supported by the Indian National Satellite System system of the country, one of the largest domestic satellite systems in the world. India possesses a diversified communications system, which links all parts of the country by telephone, Internet, radio, television and satellite. Indian telecom industry underwent a high pace of market liberalisation and growth since the 1990s and now has become the world's most competitive and one of the fastest growing telecom markets. Telecommunication has supported the socioeconomic development of India and has played a significant role to narrow down the rural-urban digital divide to some extent. It also has helped to increase the transparency of governance with the introduction of e-governance in India.