This is an extract from the ITU's recent report on trends in telecom reforms. The telecom industry has the potential to transform a nation's fate.

The telecom infrastructure in India has grown at a rapid pace after 1994 when the New Telecom Policy 1994 came into force. The telecom density grew from a meagre 1.2 per hundred to touch 2.3 now. This is a significant achievement.

But there are other countries, especially developed countries, that have doubled and tripled the telephone penetration in a shorter time.

And this was made possible by being technology savvy and prioritising the objective of offering affordable services to the public.

In India, despite developments there still remains a strong demand for telecom services at affordable rates. And the New Telecom Policy 1999 lends top credence to this objective.

The Internet access business is already open, and so is the domestic long distance market. The new policy has announced sweeping changes in the licence mechanism and optimism levels among the players is quite high.

But this optimism comes with the anxiety of operating in an extremely competitive environment. Technological developments along with competition have started transforming the telecom business into a commodity like business. Already there exist exchanges in the US which trade in telecom bandwidth.

Offering value-added services will then be the order of the day. Offering options to customers would be the only way to gain a pricing advantage. To offer a wide basket of services, and still specialise, would mean there would have to be a lot many consortiums and alliances. Organisational structures would become cellular and would see more strategic business units coming up.

While new equations in the telecom industry unfold, the users are in for heady days.