Title: A review of telecom reforms and policies in the Indian telecom market

Authors: Sadhna Shukla

Addresses: School of Management, G.D. Goenka University, Gurugram, Gate No. 3, GD Goenka Education City, Sohna, Gurgaon Road, Sohna, Haryana, 122103, India

Abstract: The Indian telecom market offers significant opportunities for telecom service providers confronted by consumer's insatiable appetite for voice and data. The purpose of this study is to review the extraordinary growth of the Indian telecom sector during the period 2008-2018. Relatedly, the study highlights the National Digital Communications Policy 2018 and provides an all-encompassing novel insight into the latest trends in the Indian telecom market utilising four performance metrics viz., telephone subscriptions, teledensity, average revenue per user (ARPU) and broadband subscriber growth (BSG) to assess the India telecom market growth trajectory. The study reveals that BSG, wireless subscription and teledensity have increased remarkably whereas ARPU and wireline subscription has declined steadily. Statistically, it is found that ARPU has declined due to hyper-competition. The findings of the study would be beneficial for telecom service providers and policymakers to make insightful managerial decisions bolstering reliability and affordability of telecom services to the end-customer.

Keywords: average revenue per user; ARPU; broadband subscriber growth; BSG; telephone subscription; telecom policy; teledensity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2021.115003

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2021 Vol.22 No.4, pp.482 - 503

Received: 24 Jan 2020
Accepted: 04 Apr 2020
Published online: 13 May 2021 *

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