Telecom sector to create 3-mn jobs by 2018, claims study

The telecom sector could generate 3 million jobs by 2018 on the back of rapid 4G technology deployments, rising data consumption, use of digital wallets and smartphone adoption, claims an Assocham-KPMG study.
 
The optimistic job assessment comes at a time when telecom companies are battling financial stress and competition has led to a free fall in tariffs, putting pressure on revenue and profitability of operators.
 
“The telecom sector finds itself in an unenviable position where despite falling average revenue per user, the players are forced to invest significantly in infrastructure and technology upgrades in order to maintain competitiveness,” it said.
 

 

The study said the existing manpower in the sector may not match up to the upcoming demand, both in numbers and required skill sets. The study also acknowledged that the competition in the sector has increased putting pressure on operators’ margins.

"Indian telecom sector is a highly price-sensitive market with a subscriber base that has majority pre-paid subscribers with lower ARPU... The increased debt burden on operators coupled with continuous pressure on profitability has affected the financial health of the telecom sector," it said.

Mobile data traffic grew 76 per cent in India in 2016, with the growth primarily attributed to increased smartphone penetration, it noted. The total number of SIM connections is expected to reach 1.4 billion by 2020, from the current 1.1 billion.

"With 646 million unique mobile subscribers, India is the second-largest mobile market in the world and will add more than 300 million new unique subscribers by 2020," it said, adding that the telecom sector contribution to GDP is likely to touch 8.2 per cent by 2020.

The Assocham-KPMG study pointed to "tremendous growth potential" for Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, saying the market is poised to reach USD 15 billion by 2020 with 2.7 billion units of connected devices. The market size in 2016 was $5.6 billion with 200 million units of connected devices.

The study further pegged the CapEx investment during 2016-20 at $35 billion.