16,019 and this is increasing fast. Yet the present tele-density is very low at about 1.9 per hundred persons, offering a vast scope for growth. In the field of International communications, tremendous progress was made by the use of Satellite Communication and submarine links. The voice and non-voice telecom services include data transmission, facsimile, mobile radio, radio paging, V-SAT and leased line services to cater to variety of needs, both residential and business. A dedicated Packet Switched Public Data Network (I-NET) with international access for computer communication services is also available. ISDN service has already been introduced in the major cities. Other services like Intelligent Network (IN), Frame Relay (FR) and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) for wide band multimedia applications will be introduced in the near future. In the field of international communications, India's overseas service carrier Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL) has made tremendous progress by using extensive infrastructure of satellite earth stations, state-of-the-art digital gateways, Optical Fibre Multi Media submarine Cables and Multi Media Data Switches. Fully automatic international subscriber dialling (ISD) service is provided to almost all the countries in the world. In future, VSNL is positioning itself to provide bandwidth on demand, Global Virtual Private Networks, ISDN, B-ISDN, VSATs, Mini-M and hand held Personal Communications. Indian Telecommunication industry manufactures a complete range of telecommunication equipment using state-of-the-art technologies designed specially to match the diverse terrain and climatic conditions. The technology and quality of telecom products is continuously updated through research and development activities. C-DOT - India's premier telecom research organisation, develops advanced digital switching and transmission systems specific to the needs of the developing nations. To attain the objective of Nat...
