Telephones:
12 million (1996)
Telephone system:
mediocre; local and long distance service provided throughout all regions
of the country, with services primarily concentrated in the urban areas;
major objective is to continue to expand and modernize long-distance
network in order to keep pace with rapidly growing number of local
subscriber lines; steady improvement is taking place with the recent
admission of private and private-public investors, but demand for
communication services is also growing rapidly
domestic:
local service is provided by microwave radio relay and coaxial cable, with
open wire and obsolete electromechanical and manual switchboard systems
still in use in rural areas; starting in the 1980s, a substantial amount of
digital switch gear has been introduced for local- and long-distance
service; long-distance traffic is carried mostly by coaxial cable and
low-capacity microwave radio relay; since 1985, however, significant trunk
capacity has been added in the form of fiber-optic cable and a domestic
satellite system with 254 earth stations; cellular telephone service in
four metropolitan cities
international:
satellite earth stations8 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Inmarsat (Indian
Ocean Region); four gateway exchanges operating from Mumbai, New Delhi,
Calcutta, and Chennai; submarine cables to Malaysia, UAE, Singapore, and
Japan
Radio broadcast stations:
AM 153, FM 91, shortwave 62 (1998 est.)
Radios:
111 million (1998 est.)
Television broadcast stations:
562 (82 stations have 1 kW or greater power and 480 stations have less than
1 kW of power) (1997)
Televisions:
50 million (1999 est.)