Telecommunications System in India

Telecommunications System in India India operates one of the largest telecommunications networks in the world. It includes communication through telephone, mobile and Internet. The provision of world class telecommunica­tion infrastructure is the key to rapid economic and social development of the country. It is also anticipated that in the near future, a major part of the GDP of the country would be contributed by this sector.

In India, telecommunication services were introduced soon after the invention of telegraphy and telephone. The first telegraph line between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour was opened for traffic in 1851. By March 1884, telegraph messages could be sent from Agra to Calcutta. By 1900, telegraph and telephone. had started serving the Indian Railways. Telephone service was also introduced in Calcutta in 1881-82, barely six years after the invention of telephone. The first automatic exchange was commissioned at Simla in 1913-14 with a capacity of 700 lines.

Initially, the telephone exchanges were of manual type, which were subsequently upgraded to automatic electro­mechanical type. In the last 'one-and-a-half decade, a sig­nificant qualitative improvement has been brought about by inducting digital electronic exchanges in the network on a very large scale. Today all the telephone exchanges in the country are of electronic type.