India has a well-set communications network with fiber optic cables, satellite and radio communications, telephone networks, mobile cellular service (both GSM and CDMA) and Internet facilities.

Telephone

There are a number of multinational players along with the Government owned BSNL (called MTNL in Delhi and Mumbai) who offer fixed landline facilities and local, STD and ISD calling at nominal rates. Main telephone lines in use are 48.917 million (2003)

Mobile

In 2003, there were about 26,154,400 mobile cellular connections. The major service providers are the BSNL, Bharti Telecom, Hutch, Reliance, Idea cellular etc. Mobile handsets are available from NOKIA, Samsung, LG, Motorola, and Sony Eriksson etc.

Broadcast Stations

There are about 153 AM, 91 FM and 68 short-wave radio broadcast stations (1998) and 562 television broadcast stations (1997).

Internet

India's Internet country code is '.in'. There are about 86,871 Internet hosts and 18.481million Internet users (2003).

Dial up is still common in smaller towns and cities however the bigger cities deliver more promising broadband Internet facilities. The major players are govt owned BSNL, private owned Sify, and Dishnet DSL etc. Most of the mobile operators and fixed wireless phone providers like Reliance infocom, Tata Indicom, Airtel etc. also provide dial up Internet facilities.