The stage is set for 4 more players to join the Indian telecom landscape. The DoT has issued letters of intent to all eligible applicants who had applied on or before the 25th of September.

Experts say that there will be two distinct advantages of more players coming into the telecom sector. One, the telecom tariffs are likely to come down and that is because new players will have to woo customers and also because the infrastructure costs for these new players will also be much lower since they will not have to set up everything from scratch. They can lease it from the infrastructure companies that are being formed by current telecom companies and that could be a substantial saving.

Also, experts say it would improve penetration because the new companies would like to go into tier-II and tier-III cities where penetration is still lower rather than go to the metros, which are anyway over 50% penetrated. So, it would increase the reach of mobile telephony.