The telecom density in the country has crossed two per 100 people, placing it among the top dozen countries with the largest number of phones.
Senior officials of the department of telecommunications (DoT) said the number of telephones in the country by the end of September stood between 19 and 20 million.
The number of telephone working lines, referred to as digital exchange lines, is expected to rise from 17.35 million last year to 21.25 million by March 31, 1999. Telecom capacity is expected to cross the 25-million mark by then, notching up a 25 per cent growth this fiscal.
The number of digital exchange lines in the network is normally between 80 and 85 per cent of this capacity, based on the "prescribed loading conditions" to ensure optimal quality of service. Besides, some 10 per cent capacity is reserved for emergencies like natural calamities.
The advent of service by private basic telecom operators and a 4.1 million target set for both DoT and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) will help the network scale the target, sources said.
In its 1998-99 budget, the Union government has set DoT a target of 3.57 million lines as fresh switching (or exchange) capacity for the fiscal year and 530,000 lines for MTNL. This will take the total capacity from 20.7 million to about 24.8 million.
In addition, the networks being set up by private basic telecom operators will help the country cross the 25-million mark. Bharti Telenet, which inaugurated its network in Madhya Pradesh in June, is targeting a capacity of some 50,000.
In 1997-98, DoT exceeded its physical infrastructure targets. It ended the year with a 20.7 million line switching capacity and about 17 million working digital exchange lines. It added 3 million fresh switching capacity against a target of 2.9 million it set for itself by end-March 1998.
Revenue of the department is estimated to have exceeded Rs 17,000 crore in 1997-98, nearly a 17 per cent jump over the previous year's turnover. "We will be able to exceed physical targets for the year 1997-98 despite an additional Rs 450 crore outgo due to implementation of the Pay Commission recommendations," a senior DoT official said.
The expenditure on account of increase in salaries of DoT employees worked out to Rs 900 crore. This, the finance ministry has directed, will have to be absorbed by DoT leading to fears of the department missing its physical targets.
However, the waiting list for telephones is estimated to have swelled from the 1996-97 figure of 2.88 million. Fiscal 1997-98 is estimated to have ended up with more than 3 million applications on the waiting list. However, latest figures from the circles are awaited.
Also, the department has consistently missed its village connectivity targets. DoT had set itself a target of 87,000 new villages to be connected to the country's telecom network in 1997-98. This, however, was missed by as many as 60,000 villages. This fiscal, too, the target has been scaled down from 85,000 villages to 40,000.
Over 300,000 villages in the country do not have access to a telephone. Only 2.67 lakh villages had a telephone at the end of 1996-97. This was expected to go up to 3.54 lakh villages by the March 31, 1998, a target likely to fall short by 58,000 villages.
