Research and Markets’ latest reports examine the Indian subcontinent, with India and Pakistan’s telecom industries in the spotlight.
India continues to be one of the fastest growing major telecom markets in the world, and also one of the largest. Sweeping reforms introduced by successive Indian governments over the last two decades have dramatically changed the nature of telecommunications in the country. The Indian government has been proactive in its efforts to transform India into a global telecommunication hub.
India's telecom industry is expected to see a major expansion of its network infrastructure during the 2018 to 2020 period. Each of the top three mobile operators: Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone-Idea are now planning to extend coverage to address a surge in data consumption.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's telecom market has been struggling for a long time with the transition from a regulated state-owned monopoly to a deregulated competitive structure. Foreign investment has been an important factor in Pakistan's telecom sector.
The fixed line market in Pakistan remains underdeveloped due to the dominance of the mobile segment. Further, the number of fixed telephone lines is slowly declining as the mobile segment continues to expand. The market is predicted to decline further over the next five years to 2023 as the mobile segment continues to grow for both voice and data/broadband usage.
The struggling fixed-line market in Pakistan is dominated by Pakistan Telecommunications Company Ltd (PTCL). The only other provider with a significant customer base is NTC.
