3 1. History and growth of mobile phone industry in India: The real transformation came in the scenario of Indian telecom industry after announcement of National telecom policy in 1994. The mobile services were commercially launched in India in August 1995. In the initial 5–6 years the average monthly subscribers additions were around 0.05 to 0.1 million only and the total mobile subscribers base in December 2002 stood at 10.5 millions. However, after the number of proactive initiatives taken by regulator and licensor, the monthly mobile subscriber additions increased to around 2 million per month in the year
2003-04 and 2004-05. In the last few years there has been a huge exponential growth with addition of about 10 to 15 million subscribers per month to customer base. In the initial days of mobile phone in India in mid 1990‟s the grey market accounted for 80 per cent of the mobile phone sales due to a huge price differential between the legally imported and the grey market phones. Even as the government slashed the duties at the same time various mobile manufacturers reduced their rates to induce the customers to buy a phone from authorized phone shop. Today the grey market comprises very small share of market. When mobile phones were introduced in India in the mid-90s, US based Motorola,
Sweden's Ericsson and Finland's Nokia dominated the handset market in India. Over the years, the old order has changed today