TELECOM - BACKBONE OF INDIA'S DIGITAL ECONOMY: CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE TRENDS

Before pandemic, Indian Telecom industry after 25 years journey, transformed as oligopoly of only four players from a competitive market of 15 players in 2015, was ailing due to disruptive price war, high costs of spectrum acquisition and rising debt burden struggling for its survival. But during the country-wide lockdown due to COVID-19 in 2020, the average daily data traffic of 250 petabytes per day as of December 2019 increased to 370 petabytes with a salient shift in traffic from urban to outskirts and rural areas and from offices to residential areas emphasizing the exigency of telecommunications in maintaining economic activity. The telecom sector's contribution to India's GDP is estimated to escalate substantially during pandemic time. Post pandemic, the efficient competitive market development by combined efforts of the telecom operators, the government and the regulator will be a key for the success of Indian digital economy.