18.95 million (1999)

1.9 million (April 1998)

mediocre service; local and long distance service
provided throughout all regions of the country, with services
primarily concentrated in the urban areas; major objective is to
continue to expand and modernize long-distance network in order to
keep pace with rapidly growing number of local subscriber lines;
steady improvement is taking place with the recent admission of
private and private-public investors, but demand for communication
services is also growing rapidly
domestic: local service is provided by microwave radio relay and
coaxial cable, with open wire and obsolete electromechanical and
manual switchboard systems still in use in rural areas; starting in
the 1980s, a substantial amount of digital switch gear has been
introduced for local and long-distance service; long-distance traffic
is carried mostly by coaxial cable and low-capacity microwave radio
relay; since 1985 significant trunk capacity has been added in the
form of fiber-optic cable and a domestic satellite system with 254
earth stations; mobile cellular service is provided in four
metropolitan cities
international: satellite earth stations - 8 Intelsat (Indian Ocean)
and 1 Inmarsat (Indian Ocean region); nine gateway exchanges operating
from Mumbai (Bombay), New Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai (Madras),
Jalandhar, Kanpur, Gaidhinagar, Hyderabad, and Ernakulam; 4 submarine
cables - LOCOM linking Chennai (Madras) to Penang; Indo-UAE-Gulf cable
linking Mumbai (Bombay) to Al Fujayrah, UAE; India-SEA-ME-WE-3,
SEA-ME-WE-2 with landing sites at Cochin and Mumbai (Bombay);
Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) with landing site at Mumbai
(Bombay)

AM 153, FM 91, shortwave 68 (1998)

116 million (1997)

562 (of which 82 stations have 1 kW or
greater power and 480 stations have less than 1 kW of power) (1997)

63 million (1997)

3 (1999)