Telecom Lead India: With tele-density reaching over 166
percent in the urban markets, the telecom industry is eyeing to tap the rural
market. The tele-density in rural India is less than 36 percent.
Deloitte predicts that the next wave of telecom growth is
likely to emerge from rural India where 3G enabled VAS services could be the
biggest contributor.
In order to augment the growth of rural market, operators
would increasingly use the voice platform as well as localized content to
ensure relevance and widespread adoption in the rural zones. Operators could
gain alternative revenue streams and differentiate themselves through VAS
services as voice has become significantly commoditized.
The firm also predicts that the rural growth will also
expand the demand for telecom equipments. As per IT Task Force, India’s demand
for electronic products will be $400 billion by 2020. Some of the major
electronics such as smartphones, tablets are part of the telecom umbrella.
In
order to tap the rural market, device manufacturers have also started planning
to introduce products catering to the demands of rural area. Recently, Micromax
said that it will soon launch a mobile phone with built-in solar charger, which
will be targeted at consumers in rural areas with little or no power supply.
According to Deloitte, lack of physical infrastructure
and skilled specialists in social sectors like healthcare, banking and
education in rural areas makes the need for mobile based solutions all the more
attractive.
These sectors can be made accessible to the rural areas
through telecom enabled mobile services such as m-Health, m-Commerce and
m-Learning, respectively. Therefore, telecom can be a major enabler of economic
growth and social modernization in rural India. These possibilities bring to
light the importance of building a modern and robust telecom infrastructure in
a vast country like India.
