With a head count of 1.11 billion and a tele-density of just 13.54%, India definitely means a land of opportunities, but what should not be forgotten is that while tele-density of urban India is 36%, ailing rural India (consisting 74% of total population) enjoys a tele-density of mere 0.4%! And as Romal Shetty, an analyst with KPMG says, “Operators have to shift their focus to non-saturated rural areas, and increasing rural tele-density to just 4% by 2010 will involve investments of $6.5 billion annually!” And with CDMA being the more efficient technology for providing cellular services in wide expansive rural areas, Hutch’s expenditure on rural telephony and CDMA should have been on top of the strategic priority list, and not GSM! For once, Hutch is “missing the trees for the woods...”
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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy, Editor:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri - 2006
