Rural Telecom Connectivity

India has connected majority of its villages with payphones, and the market is poised for a major boom in the years ahead. The villages will become part of the national mainstream giving better access to agricultural markets and fetching better prices for the farmers. So far, around 88 million phones have been provided in the rural areas with a tele-density of around 11 per cent.

Telecom services at affordable prices can increase the ability of the rural masses to participate in the market economy which will in turn improve their earnings. Growth of the telecom sector is a critical component of the infrastructure which acts as a catalyst in the entire development process of the country. Telecom connectivity in the rural areas poses a major challenge because of low income and geographical variance across the country.

The government has set an ambitious target of providing 200 million telephone connections in the rural areas by the end of 2012. India has become home to the world's third largest telecom network with over 270 million telephone users, but rural connectivity still remains a critical dimension of growth achieved in the recent past  notes in the Economic Survey of 2008.

The telecom revolution unleashed in the last decade will transform the lives of the rural areas. The telecom sector has continued to register robust growth and has emerged as a key sector driving India's economic progress.