The much talked about success in the telecom sector notwithstanding, India still trails China and the West by a wide margin in terms of number of phones.
"While tele-density has risen sharply to 6.60 per cent as of December 2003, India continues to lag far behind countries like Brazil and China where the tele-density is more than 40. In order to 'catch up', there is a need to maintain vigorous pro-competitive efforts in terms of public policy," the Economic Survey said on Friday.
Economic Survey 2004-05: Complete Coverage
However, India is much ahead in tele-density compared to neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, it said.
However, Sri Lanka is ahead of India at 9.57 per cent. Even Indonesia has a tele-density of 9.17 per cent. Among the Latin American countries, Brazil has a tele-density of 42.38 per cent, the Survey added.India's tele-density as on December 2003 stood at 6.60 per cent, which is nearly one-tenth of Australia (126.18 per cent), UK (143.13 per cent) and USA (116.43 per cent) and it is about one-seventh of China (42.32 per cent).
Overall tele-density rose from just 2.32 per cent in 1999 to 8.2 per cent in October 2004, the Survey said and added the structure and composition of telecom growth has undergone a substantial change in terms of mobile versus fixed phones with mobile phones accounting for 50 per cent of total phones and private sector 44 per cent.
The Economic Survey also mentions that although India's 88.62 million strong telephone network including mobile phones is one of the largest in the world, with the low telephone penetration rate of about 8.20 phones per hundred population, the country offers vast scope for growth.