Investment in the Indian telecom sector

will peak at USD 40 billion during the current

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fiscal as the country

presses on to build a network of one billion mobile phones over the

next two years, the Telecom Equipment & Services Export Promotion

Council said today.

This investment, up from USD 20 billion seen last year, would

be for continuing the development of 3G, Broadband Wireless Access

and expansion of existing networks, said R K Pathak, secretary of

the Telecom Equipment & Services Export Promotion Council, here at

the CommunicAsia 2010, a Singapore exhibition for global telecom industries.

The Indian government has set up the Telecom Equipment & Services

Export Promotion Council for promoting export of equipment and services.

However, investment would be lower in the next fiscal as the

industry completes most of its developments, especially the establishment

of hardware, Pathak said, adding that software development was largely

done by indigenous engineering workforce.

Additionally, India is also importing an average of USD 10 billion

worth of hardware to support its massive expansion of telecom sector,

which has set a target of adding 18-20 million subscribers a month,

said Pathak, who is also a deputy director general (IP) at the Department

of Telecommunications.

Pathak projected the domestic manufacturing sector to produce

Rs 60,000 crore of equipment this fiscal year, up from Rs 50,000

crore last fiscal year, which were doubled from Rs 25,000 crore two years ago.

Pathak also highlighted the export potential of Indian telecom

sector, projecting a USD 5 billion hardware product export in the

current fiscal year compared to USD 4 billion a year ago.

Pathak said the five-company Indian participation in the CommunicAsia

has received positive business collaboration responses from visitors

to the Singapore show.

A number of collaborations and joint ventures were being discussed

at the CommunicAsia for marketing India-made telecom equipment on

the global market, he said.

Though this is the first year participation in the Singapore

exhibition, the year-old council would be launching more global marketing

and trade promotion campaigns at international exhibitions in the

coming year, he said.