NEW DELHI: U.S. titan American Telephone & Telegraph Co. and Indian mogul Aditya Birla Jan. S announced an alliance to explore setting up telecommunications services in India, which is opening its phone-starved market.
The largest U.S. long distance carrier and one of India’s most powerful industrial houses would be competing for the prized right LO SCL up basic and cellular phone services in India, which lags far behind the rest of the world.
In India, where phone services currently are controlled by the state, only 0.8 percent of 900 million people have telephones, the firms said.
That compares with a world average of 10 phones per 100 people. 1.7 phones per 100 people in China, two in Pakistan and 13 in Malaysia. In India, only about four in 10 phone calls are successfully routed to the number that is dialed.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 20, 1995
