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Indian telecom users sent out a strong message to the industry in 2003-04 -that in a country of more than a billion, what people need first and foremost is getting connected with each other. And do just that-connect. What they do with that network is not for the operators to tell them, let alone the equipment suppliers.

Simply stated, the industry saw rapid growth in volumes, but with little deployment of newer and sophisticated technologies, reminding all of us once again that there is a huge "real" India that is as eager to get connected with each other as the rest of us who actively discusses telecom policies, technologies and market growth. Two companies took the initiative in driving this change to make the phones reach out to the masses-the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and the newcomer Reliance Infocomm. As a result, while the spread of network infrastructure got a shot in the arms and the phone sales swelled, there was little heard in terms of IP, sophisticated OSS and broadband.

However, despite the booming subscriber base the carrier equipment business shrunk to Rs. 9704 crore in 2003-04 from a high of Rs. 14771 core in 2002-03. This was a negative growth of -43.2 per cent . However, this negative growth should not surprise any one. Growth in 2002-03 was fueled by the deployment of new networks across the country by almost all the operators inlcuding BSNL. On the other hand, 2003-04 was an year of network expansion. Given this equipment purchases by telecom carriers were substantially less than in 2003. Moreover, in segments like telecom cables, it was the growing wireless focus of operators like BSNL and MTNl which hit the business.

As the consumers were the major market, wireless saw booming time. That ensured that all the companies that were heavily into wireless did extremely well. The suucess of Nokia and LG in the country is case in point. India is the only major country outside USA and China where both CDMA and GSM coexist. And both are seeing rapid growth in the country. This growth is expected to be sustained at least for the next two years.

With wireless picking up, the strong wireless companies-Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia-grew while Lucent somehow managed to hold on. Strong wireline companies like Alcatel and Siemens suffered, as did ITI.

It was a year of unwiring, in all senses of the word. So much so that, it is not just wireless equipment that got a boost, the epitome of the wired world-telecom cables industry-actually shrunk heavily. The industry shrunk by almost 50 percent.

In fact, the story of Indian telecom infrastructure could be called a one-at-a-time growth. While the year 200-01 saw the large scale deployment of optical fibers, giving a solid boost to the cable and duct industry, the next year saw the cables being lighted up and the core infrastructure being put in place, as a result boosting the switching and transmission segments. This year was the year of reaching out to the users. And what a cheaper and quicker way to achieve that objective than going wireless?

The next year could also see large growth in numbers, possible just starting a value added services tug of war between GSM and CDMA, in order to increase ARPU. Expect middleware and application platforms to get deployed in large quantity the next year.

In core infrastructure, one deal that was clearly the news of the year was the outsourcing deal that Bharti signed with Ericsson. This $400 million deal will allow Ericsson to manage, maintain, operate and optimize the network of Bharti's GSM network in all its circles. One of the first such comprehensive deals in the world, this has certainly raised a lot of hopes. Will this result in a trend? A pipeline of such deals? Seems unlikely, but no one can ignore this option now on.

Balaka Baruah Aggarwal and Ravi Shekhar Pandey