TRAI's chairman Dr. JS Sarma is committed to sustaining and promoting the growth of the telecom industry, preparing the country for new generation technologies like NGN, 4G, LTE, and the like; and building investor confidence. The industry regular will attack inter service operator issues and work toward reducing the digital divide and protecting consumer interests. He is geared for the tough job ahead, which includes tasks like quick decisions on 3G spectrum allocation, fixing up portability charges that are delaying the implementation of MNP, and ensuring QoS for consumers.

With the UPA led government returning to power with much aplomb, A. Raja is ready to serve his second term as the Minister of IT and Communications. The industry sentiment has turned around and the economy seems to have entered recovery mode. The telecom industry is also infected with hope as the minister has put 3G auctioning high on his agenda and aims to work toward increased rural penetration, paperless governance, and tariff reduction wherein local calls and domestic long distance calls could be priced as low as 10 paisa and 25 paisa per minute respectively.

With 11.90 million subscriber additions in April, the total number of wireless subscribers stood at 403.66 million. The overall mobile subscriber base is expected to be close to 900 million in 2012. With this phenomenal growth in mobile telephony maintaining its upward momentum, the number of telecom towers in the country is set to increase from the current 260,000 to 846,000 by 2012.

Gartner predicts that global IT spending will be at USD 3.2 trillion (in revenue) in 2009—a 3.8 percent decline from the nearly USD 3.4 trillion in 2008. India saw a spending growth of 13 percent in 2008, but is projected to grow only 5.52 percent in 2009. IT heads are continuing with older infrastructure and paying close attention to costs. The sales approach in this space too is witnessing a strategic shift. Our focus on the MFD, UPS, and voice solution space in the June edition confirms that vendors have transformed the sales process, which is now characterized by concentration on newer markets such as Tier II and III cities and personalized selling models.