A joint study carried out by the industry body Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) and KPMG has found out that the telecommunications sector in India will create as many as 30 lakh jobs by 2018 on the back of rapid 4G technology deployments, rising data consumption, introduction of digital wallets and popularity of smartphones. In addition, study revealed that emerging technologies such as 5G, M2M and the evolution of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) are expected to create employment avenues for almost 870,000 individuals by 2021.
The study stated that the optimistic job assessment comes at a time when the large telecom companies are battling financial stress and competition has led to a free fall in tariffs, putting revenue and profitability of all telcos under severe pressure. Further, it pointed out that the existing manpower in the sector may not be adequate both in number as well as in skill to cater to the upcoming demand. It also noted that the gaps in skills will need to be closed for diverse roles such as infra and cyber security experts, application developers, sales executives, infrastructure and handset technicians, and re-skilling will have to be undertaken for the existing manpower, given the technological advancements.
Assocham-KPMG study further said that Indian telecom sector is a highly price-sensitive market with a subscriber base that has majority pre-paid subscribers with lower average revenue per user (ARPU). It also explained that the increased debt burden on operators coupled with continuous pressure on profitability has affected the financial health of the telecom sector. It mentioned that with 646 million unique mobile subscribers, India is the second-largest mobile market in the world and will add more than 300 million new unique subscribers by 2020. It added that sector contribution to GDP is likely to touch 8.2 per cent by 2020. The study further pegged the capex investment during 2016-20 at $35 billion.
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