The Communications Bill that the government is working on will overhaul the way the telecom sector is currently regulated. The draft legislation proposes to reduce the government’s role in economic regulation and instead focus on issues such as security, morality, public safety, disaster management and ensuring that there is adequate competition and optimal usage of spectrum, a limited natural resource, according to a Department of Telecommunications (DoT) presentation. The new Bill aims to repeal all four laws that govern the telecom sector currently. These include the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885; the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933; the Telegraph Wires (unlawful possession) Act, 1950, and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act of 1997, according to the presentation.

India has already been recognised as the worlds’s fastest growing smartphone market, and is now proving to be a huge gold-mine for advertisers as well. Mobile advertising volume in India has grown the fastest in the world since July 2013 by 260%, and is also the fastest growing region in Asia-Pacific with 70% year over year growth. In a report by Opera Mediaworks titled State of mobile Advertising, the recent ad-spike in India is attributed to the market place shift as users steer away from less capable feature phones to advanced smartphones. Tracking device adoption, the report – the ad network’s first study of the Indian market – said the Android platform has 41.7% market share in India while Apple’s iOS has just 0.4%.

India's mobile phone customer base rose 0.42 percent, or a net 3.8 million, in July to 918.72 million, says data released by the sector regulator. By comparison, China, the world's biggest mobile phone market, reported a 0.28 percent monthly increase in the number of mobile subscribers to about 1.27 billion as of end-July. Active mobile subscribers in July were 797.06 million, or about 86.76 percent. Mobile connections per 100 people, known as tele-density, was 73.78 as of July. Mobile tele-density in urban areas was 140.96, compared with 43.90 in rural areas. In July, 2.86 million mobile subscribers opted to change their service providers through mobile number portability. Mobile number portability is currently allowed only within a service zone. India is divided into 22 telecommunications service zones.

Total telephone subscriber base in India rose marginally in July to reach 94.64 crore, with 34.5 lakh users added during the month, sectoral regulator Trai said. The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 942.95 million at the end of June, 2014 to 946.40 million at the end of July, 2014, thereby showing a monthly growth of 0.37 per cent, says TRAI. The overall tele-density in the country increased to 76 per cent from 75.80 per cent at the end of June. Urban subscription increased to 56.24 crore at the end of July from 55.97 crore at the end of June. The rural base was up from 38.31 crore, to 38.39 crore. The total wireless subscriber base rose 0.42 per cent in July to reach 91.87 crore at the end of July from 91.49 crore last month. The overall wireless tele-density has increased to 73.78 per cent.