Legislative Framework for Installing and Maintaining Communication Iinfrastructure In India

Abstract

Indian telecom sector is witnessing a very rapid development. Telecommunication has reached to the level of fundamental need. Such a huge infrastructure can not be developed without clear policies and framework. The telecom industry is one of the prime contributors to India's GDP. The once monopolistic market is today, highly competitive. This has necessitated the growth of India telecom infrastructure. The government of India believes that for rapid economic development backed by social welfare, the telecom infrastructure in India needs to be uplifted. This necessitates the formulation of a comprehensive telecom policy that visualizes the future of the Indian telecom market. By the beginning of 2007, the telecom network in India consisted of 48 million fixedline connections. Nowadays, a enormous majority of the population has access to telephone services. The highly competitive environment has ensured low pricing of goods and services that caters to the weaker sections of the society. Moreover, the augmentation of Indian telecom infrastructure has also widened the scope of the telecom sector to other allied ventures like mobile services, Internet, cable TV services, E-Commerce, and other forms of Information Technology. In terms of long distance calls, India telecom infrastructure has made remarkable growth. The present telecom and mobile-phone service providers in India, apart from BSNL include Hutchison Essar, Reliance Communications, Bharti Airtel, Idea, Tata Indicom, and a few others. In this paper, the history and evolution of legislative framework of Indian communication sector is depicted.