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CHICAGO--International attendance at Supercomm 2005 was up 20% this year, according to show officials, and among that group was a large delegation from India, including officials of the dominant carrier, BSNL, and the government Ministry of Communications & IT.

Like most other nations, India has brought competition to its telecom market, but BSNL remains the primary carrier and the company most engaged in trying to bring telecom to the country’s remote villages. With more than 46 million customers in total--wireline, fixed wireless and mobile--BSNL is the seventh largest carrier globally and generates $1.5 billion profit after tax, said A.K. Sinha, chairman and managing director. The company is tackling major challenges on two significant fronts: Bringing broadband to India via ADSL2+, Wi-Fi and WiMAX, while also increasing the penetration of basic phone service from 9.1% to 23% within the next three years.

“We are putting more stress on rural development,” said Sinha.

That effort is aided by the Indian government, which places a 5% levy of gross revenue of all operators into a Universal Service Obligation fund, said J.R.Gupta, senior deputy director general of the Telecom Engineering Centre of Ministry of Communications & IT’s Department of Telecommunications. “We are compensating them for their opex in serving rural areas,” he said. “Out of that fund, the government will invite licensed operators who are least cost to provide connectivity.”

BSNL gets 70% to 80% of those licenses and that rural compensation, Sinha said. In most cases, the company provides either wired links or, when that is impossible, a satellite connection to put one phone in each of 600,000 villages scattered around India, Sinha said.

“We are even able to provide telephony where there is no electrical power,” said S.D. Saxena, director of finance for BSNL.

When the recent tsunami wiped out service to a chain of Indian islands, BSNL was able to reconnect telephone lines within 14 hours. “We were paying $1.50 a minute for long-distance service and charging one cent per minute,” said Saxena.

India has relaxed rules on foreign investment to encourage competition, Gupta said. The previous limit of 49% foreign ownership of competitive service providers has been raised to 74% and there is no restriction on foreign ownership of manufacturing, he said. Already, Nokia, Alcatel and Ericsson are investing in the Indian market.

BSNL has a major RFP out to establish a broadband infrastructure and is looking for partner, Sinha said.

“We are not a competitor--India wants to be a partner,” he commented. “We are developing an economy and taking it to the remotest parts of India. The telephone has become a catalyst for growth.”