ven among a whole variety of markets that have been dramatically transformed, telecom stands out. Just five years ago, India was dominated overwhelmingly by the fixed line, of which there were 26.7 million. The mobile telephone was still the oddity, the rich man's toy: there were only 1.9 million subscribers making up less than 7 per cent of all phone lines.

If mobile handsets were expensive, using them was even more so. Local outgoing calls cost Rs 8 per minute and incoming calls were expensive too, at Rs 4 a minute. Indian teledensity was pathetic, only 2.8 per cent in 2000-01.... more