August 1995 witnessed a historic event when the first call was made over a mobile services network. However the country was late in adoption of the technology as compared to the fact that the world’s first calling over 2G network was made in 1991. Again, compare this with global scenario where countries such as Japan and South Korea had started rapidly embracing 3G technology way back in 2001 while the 3G spectrum auctions itself were conducted around 2009 in India.
Connectivity Spurs Growth
The entry of 2G services in the country complemented well the economic liberalisation policy embraced during the same time. Stakeholders within the government and industry could easily observe the immense benefits and correlation between mobile penetration and higher economic growth. As mobile connectivity across India increased, so did economic welfare and empowerment of the people, particularly deprived sections.
Gradually the convergence of telecom with the day-to-day life of the users resulted in emergence of new set of innovative applications. Thus users had access to music, basic banking applications, and rich media such as video, informative services such as mandi market prices, critical weather information to fishing communities and the list goes on. Such applications were classified under the value added services popularly known as VAS services. This in way trigged the first level of demand for data services as the user experience on a conventional 2G network left much to be desired.
