new wings to the competitiveness in the telecom sector of the state.A systematic review is presented in this paper tothrow light on the evolution of competitiveness in telecom sector of the state.The telecom growth has been analyzed through four phases Phase-I,Phase-II,Phase-III,and Phase-IV.Phase-I describes how the landline service was introduced in Arunachal Pradesh,Phase–II describes growth of landline and allied services in the state,Phase-III is about the introduction and growth of mobile services in the state,and Phase-IV describes the influence of Mobile Network Portability in the state’s telecom sector.A systematic review is attempted to throw light on the evolution of competitiveness in telecom sector of the state.

Phase –I

Telecom services started in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in 1963 with the installation of the first 25 lines SAX type telephone exchange at Pasighat with Radio telephony linking Dibrugarh.Till 1974,though the Sub Divisional Officer Telecom (SDOT) for Arunachal Pradesh was created,it was functioning at Tezpur of Assam under Divisional Engineering Telecom(DET),Guwahati.Subsequently the office was shifted from Tezpur to North Lakhimpur of Assam.In 1979,the same office was shifted to the capital of Arunachal Pradesh,but under the control of DET,Tezpur until 1987.
There was only one telecom circle called ‘North East Telecom Circle’,with its headquarters at Shillong,looking after the whole north east.In 1987,the ‘Assam Telecom Circle’ with its headquarters at Guwahati was created exclusively for Assam.Finally,in the year 2000 ‘North East Telecom Circle’ was bifurcated into North East-I Telecom Circle with its headquarters at Shillong and North East–II Telecom Circle with its headquarters at Dimapur.North East-I Telecom Circle comprises of Meghalaya,Mizoram,Tripura,and North East–II Telecom Circle comprised the remaining three states Manipur,Nagaland,and Arunachal Pradesh.On 1st October 2000,the telecom services which were under the department of Telecommunications were transferred to the newly created BSNL,a Government of India enterprise.

Phase –II

Presently Arunachal Pradesh Secondary Switching Area(SSA)is functioning under the North East-II circle headed by Chief General Manager,North East-II.There are sixteen sub-divisions each headed by one SDO,and they are reporting to the Divisional Engineer(operation).Under each subdivision,staff members like the Junior Telecom Officer,Telecom Technical Assistance,Phone Mechanic,Lineman,regular mazdoors are working for operation and maintenance of telecom network.
At present BSNL Telecom of Arunachal Pradesh offers a wide range of services namely Landline telephone,Wireless in Local Loop,Mobile telephony,Broadband,Internet,Optical Fibre,Satellite system,Microwave/UHF,and Village Public Telephony.The number of each services are being mentioned in table 1.

Services Number	Number
Telephone exchange	107
WLL BTS	92
Mobile BTS	269
Broadband locations	56
Optical fibre laid (in Km.)	1832
2MB IDR system (30 channel)	20
8MB IDR system (120 channel)	6
120D/2GHz system (120 Channel)	2
34 MB/7GHz system (480 Channel)	5
Village Public Telephone (VPT) provided	962

(Table 1.The Physical Infrastructure of Arunachal Pradesh as on June 2012)

The Capacity and the existing load of landline,Wireless in Local Loop(WLL),Mobile,and Broadband is presented in table 2.

	Land Line	WLL	Mobile	Broadband
Capacities	87920	42500	425594	9984
Existing Load	37157	23812	240749	5766

(Table 2.Capacity vis-à-vis Existing Load of telecom sector of AP as on June 2012)

The table outlines enough capacity as compared to the existing load in all the four services.The present capacity is nearly double of the existing load.The penetration of various telecom services in District Headquarters,Sub District Headquarters,and Block Headquarters are presented in table 3.

Coverage->	Total	Landline	Mobile	WLL	OFC	Broadband
District HQ.	17	17	17	16	5	12
Sub District HQ	44	42	43	40	19	21
Block HQ	88	53	63	46	39	25

(Table 3.Coverage of telecom services)

The data as mentioned in the above table reveals the penetration of landline,mobile,and WLL in nearly all districts,Sub district headquarters with a significant presence in the Block level.

Phase –III

At present,besides the services provided by BSNL Telecom of Arunachal Pradesh,six other private mobile companies are offering mobile telecom services in the state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Mobile service	Launch of provider commercial service
Aircel	September,2005
Airtel	August, 2006
BSNL	February, 2004
Idea	April, 2010
Reliance	April , 2007
Tata	December, 2008
Vodafone	January, 2011

(Table: 4. Status of Mobile operators in AP)

BSNL has pioneered the mobile service in 2004.Among the private players it was Aircel who has taken the lead.The commercial operation of Aircel was started in 2005,followed by Airtel after one year.The last player to enter into the state was Vodafone in 2011.BSNL till date captures a mobile telephone market of nearly 40%.The government policy supported through the competition among mobile service providers has made it possible to capture a niche in the Arunachal Pradesh market.In the process,the mobile service providers had tried to turn a problem into an opportunity.

Phase –IV

Mobile number portability(MNP)has given new wings to the competitiveness in the telecom sector of the state.MNP allows the subscribers to retain their existing mobile number when they switch from one access service provider to another irrespective of mobile technology or from one technology to another of the same or any other access service provider within the same service area.At present the whole country is divided into two zones(Zone-I and Zone-II)with a total of 22 License Service Area(LSA).The MNP operator for Zone-I and Zone-II are M/s Syniverse Technologies(India)Pvt.Ltd and M/s MNP Interconnection Telecom solutions India Pvt.Ltd.In the north east part of India,there are two LSAs namely North East License Service Area(NE-LSA)and Assam-LSA.Both NE-LSA and Assam-LSA fall under Zone 2.In MNP concept when a mobile number from one mobile operator comes inside another mobile network,it is called “Port-in”,and when the mobile number moves out to another better mobile network it is called “Port-out”.

Through these four phases we can visualize how the government supported BSNL has gone through a long process of reengineering to improve the state’s telecom status. Many of the developed states initially create a supportive environment which attracts both domestic as well as multinational private players.Gujrat is an example of such a state. The success story of telecom in Arunachal Pradesh is also in the process of implementation in other potential sectors such as Tourism,Hydro Power,Horticulture,etc.Successful implementation will make the state amongst the leading developed states of the country.

Shibabrata Choudhury