TELECOM - The Cellerati Generation

In 1995, India's first mobile call sparked a transformative journey that has redefined communication, economics and social outreach across the nation

- BY ANILESH S. MAHAJAN

It was August 1995 and metro towns in India were dotted with hoardings showcasing the latest innovation: boxy mobile handsets, resembling the expensive cordless phones sold in grey markets. The country had just celebrated its 48th Independence Day and non-commercial mobile telephony services had been launched in New Delhi. A historic moment had been recorded weeks earlier on July 31 when West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu made India's first mobile call using a Nokia handset through Modi Telstra's MobileNet service. The news of the call between Basu in Kolkata and Union telecom minister Sukh Ram at New Delhi's Sanchar Bhawan was splashed across the front pages of leading dailies. The new service, though, came with a hefty price tag: Rs 4,900 for a pre-paid SIM and Rs 17 per minute for calls, incoming or outgoing. Yet, the buzz it created was enough to fire up drawing-room discussions.

It was a decade earlier, in mid-1984, that then prime minister Indira Gandhi asked the US-based technologist Sam Pitroda, known for his innovations in hand-held computing, to return to India and help modernise the telecommunication system. And thus was born C-DOT (Centre for Development of Telematics), an autonomous body that spawned cost-effective rural exchanges for fixed-line communication across India, expanding telecom connectivity to underserved areas.