India's telecommunication network is the second largest in the world by number of telephone users with 1.179 billion subscribers as on 31 July 2018. It has one of the lowest call tariffs in the world enabled by mega telecom operators and hyper-competition among them. As on 31 July 2018, India has the world's second-largest Internet user-base with 460.24 million broadband internet subscribers in the country. As of 31 December 2018, India had a population of 130 crore people, 123 crore Aadhaar digital biometric identity cards, 121 crore mobile phones, 44.6 crore smartphones, 56 crore internet users up from 481 million people in December 2017, and 51 per cent growth in e-commerce.
SMS is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet, and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols to enable mobile devices to exchange short text messages. An intermediary service can facilitate a text-to-voice conversion to be sent to landlines. SMS was the most widely used data application at the end of 2010, with an estimated 3.5 billion active users, or about 80% of all mobile subscribers.
Roaming is a wireless telecommunication term typically used with mobile devices. It refers to the mobile phone being used outside the range of its home network and connects to another available cell network.
Celcom Axiata Berhad, DBA Celcom, is the oldest mobile telecommunications provider in Malaysia. Celcom is a member of the Axiata group of companies. Being one of the very few companies in Malaysia to originally obtain a cellular phone license, it successfully introduced mobile telephony in Malaysia through its ART-900 service, using first generation (analogue) ETACS specifications of the United Kingdom, a derivative of the US-AMPS technology. The ETACS ART-900 was started using the prefix "010". Celcom now uses the dialling prefix identifier of "013" and "019" and offer digital GSM, an originally European standard, now largely a world standard for mobile communications. The original frequency band for GSM is 900 MHz, and was soon extended to 1800 MHz to cater for a much wider bandwidth requirements. The 2100 MHz band is used for their dual-channel HSPA+ network. Celcom is also licensed and has been operating FDD-LTE on 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz.
3G, short for third generation, is the third generation of wireless mobile telecommunications technology. It is the upgrade for 2G and 2.5G GPRS networks, for faster internet speed. This is based on a set of standards used for mobile devices and mobile telecommunications use services and networks that comply with the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) specifications by the International Telecommunication Union. 3G finds application in wireless voice telephony, mobile Internet access, fixed wireless Internet access, video calls and mobile TV.
2G is short for second-generation cellular technology. 2G cellular networks were commercially launched on the GSM standard in Finland by Radiolinja in 1991.
NTT Docomo Inc. is the predominant mobile phone operator in Japan. The name is officially an abbreviation of the phrase, "do communications over the mobile network", and is also from a compound word dokomo, meaning "everywhere" in Japanese. Docomo provides phone, video phone, i-mode (internet), and mail services. The company's headquarters are in the Sanno Park Tower, Nagatachō, Chiyoda, Tokyo.
Personal Digital Cellular (PDC) was a 2G mobile telecommunications standard used exclusively in Japan.
Virgin Mobile is a wireless communications brand used by eight independent brand-licensees worldwide. Virgin Mobile branded wireless communications services are available in Australia, Colombia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Chile, Russia, France, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Poland, South Africa, México, and the United States. Virgin Mobile branded services used to be offered in Singapore, India and Qatar.
Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), sometimes referred to as "Quick Codes" or "Feature codes", is a communications protocol used by GSM cellular telephones to communicate with the mobile network operator's computers. USSD can be used for WAP browsing, prepaid callback service, mobile-money services, location-based content services, menu-based information services, and as part of configuring the phone on the network.
All mobile numbers in India start with 9, 8, 7 or 6 which is based on GSM, LTE and CDMA technologies. This includes pager services, but the use of pagers is on the decline. Each telecom circle is allowed to have multiple private operators; earlier it was two private + BSNL/MTNL, subsequently it changed to three private + BSNL/MTNL in GSM; now each telecom circle has more than five operators including BSNL/MTNL.
Robi Axiata Limited, DBA Robi, is the second largest mobile network operator in Bangladesh. It is a joint venture between Axiata Group Berhad of Malaysia, Bharti Airtel Limited of India and NTT DoCoMo Inc. of Japan. Axiata holds 68.7% controlling stake in the entity, Bharti holds 25% while the remaining 6.3% is held by NTT DOCOMO of Japan.
Bharti Airtel Limited also known as Airtel is an Indian global telecommunications services company based in Delhi, India. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, and also in the Channel Islands. Airtel provides GSM, 3G, 4G LTE, 4G+ mobile services, fixed line broadband and voice services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel had also rolled out its VoLTE technology across all Indian telecom circles except Jammu and Kashmir and Andaman and is likely to launch in these circles soon. It is the third largest mobile network operator in India and the second largest mobile network operator in the world with over 293.79 million subscribers. Airtel was named India's second most valuable brand in the first ever Brandz ranking by Millward Brown and WPP plc.
BSNL Mobile is an Indian mobile network operator, operated by the public enterprise BSNL. It provides both pre-paid and post-paid mobile services as well as many value added services. BSNL Mobile has a pan-India presence with presence in all the 22 telecom circles in India. BSNL Mobile provides all of India services with roaming access, including Delhi and Mumbai, and International roaming access to more than 300 networks across the world.
Tata Docomo was an Indian mobile network operator, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Teleservices in partnership with NTT Docomo of Japan. In October, 2017 Bharti Airtel announced merger deal with Tata Teleservices and acquisition of Tata Docomo.
In India, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) conducts auctions of licenses for electromagnetic spectrum. India was among the early adopters of spectrum auctions beginning auctions in 1994.
