Investment in telecom sector up by Rs 50,000 cr

Despite several controversies like 2G spectrum scam, the telecom sector witnessed over 17% increase in investment in 2010-11 over the previous financial year, an annual report of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said.

The capital employed in the telecom sector increased to Rs 3,37,683 crore in 2010-11 from Rs 2,86,837 crore in 2009-10, according to Trai's annual report 2010-11.

The growth in subscriber base resulted in an increase in the gross revenue of telecom services as reported by the service providers for the year to Rs 1,71,719 crore during the year, a growth of 8.69% from Rs 1,57,985 crore in the previous year.

Continuing its impressive growth in the subscriber base, the use base stood at 842.32 million, a 30.36% growth from 621.28 million in the previous financial year.

The overall teledensity in the country registered an increase from 52.74 at the end of March 2010 to 70.89 at the end of March 2011.

The revenue contribution from the public sector telecom companies in 2010-11 was 20.37% (previous year 24.82%) and from private sector firms was 79.63% (previous year 75.18%).

However, capital employed of public sector companies decreased by 7.35% in 2010-11.