Cellular Mobile in India: Competition and Policy

Telecommunications has been one of the success stories of economic reforms in India. From a teledensity of 2% in the not too distant past the sector has grown to a point where the teledensity exceeds 60%. The Indian cellular market is marked by strong competition, a large number of operators and some of the cheapest tariffs in the world. The sector experiences growth rates in excess of 80% in terms of number of subscribers. However, all is not well in this sector. There have been a number of upheavals in the past and the latest one involves alleged favouritism in allocating spectrum.

This paper analyzes the state of competition in cellular mobile in India. Standard measures of competition such as HHI and concentration ratios are used as well as market share, revenues, access to funds and profits. We also look at the degree of rivalry in the industry through changes in rankings in market share. We provide a brief discussion of the major developments in telecommunications and cellular mobile in particular after the introduction of reforms. Effects of policy making by different institutions within India are discussed in relation to their effect on competition and market development.

手機在印度：競爭與政策

電信業是印度經濟改革的成功案例之一。印度的電信密度從不久前的百分之二迅速增長到了百分之六十以上。印度手機市場的特點是競爭激烈、運營商數量龐大、並擁有一些全球最廉價的收費服務。雖然該行業的用戶增長率超過了百分之八十，電信業卻並不是形勢一片大好。其發展歷史上曾經出現過一系列的動盪，而最近的一起是在頻譜分配上的偏袒行為。

本文使用衡量競爭的標準度量方法如赫芬達爾-赫希曼指數（HHI) 和市場集中度, 以及市場佔有率、總收入、資金佔有率和利潤率等指標分析了印度手機業的競爭狀況。此外本文還通過對市場佔有率排行攷察了行業的競爭激烈程度。本文還概述了電信業和手機業在引進改革後的主要發展。最後本文探討了印度不同機構的政策制定及其對行業競爭和市場發展的影響。

Translated from English by Xin Huang