India has recorded the fastest growth in mobile telephony in the world with as many as 13 lakh (1.3 million) cellular additions every month, Minister for Communications and IT Arun Shourie said on Friday.
Shourie, who was addressing the members of consultative committee of ministry of communications and IT, said the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd had not lagged behind despite stiff competition from private cellular operators and had acquired 43 lakh (4.3 million) CellOne customers in 14 months, unnerving the private operators.
He also informed the members that India has earned $13 billion this year through software exports, according to an official release.
Shourie said the anomalies in the existing licencing system which had been restricting fair competition in the mobile arena had been removed with the introduction of unified licencing regime.
Talks were on with the defence ministry for widening bandwidth for smooth and easier access. Once the defence ministry releases spectrum, the department of telecom would have adequate bandwidth to release it to the telecom operators, he added.