The much talked about success in the telecom sector notwithstanding, India still trails China and the West by a wide margin in terms of number of phones.

"While tele-density has risen sharply to 6.60 per cent as of December 2003, India continues to lag far behind countries like Brazil and China where the tele-density is more than 40. In order to 'catch up', there is a need to maintain vigorous pro-competitive efforts in terms of public policy," the Economic Survey said on Friday.

Economic Survey 2004-05: Complete Coverage

However, India is much ahead in tele-density compared to neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, it said.

However, Sri Lanka is ahead of India at 9.57 per cent. Even Indonesia has a tele-density of 9.17 per cent. Among the Latin American countries, Brazil has a tele-density of 42.38 per cent, the Survey added.India's tele-density as on December 2003 stood at 6.60 per cent, which is nearly one-tenth of Australia (126.18 per cent), UK (143.13 per cent) and USA (116.43 per cent) and it is about one-seventh of China (42.32 per cent).

Overall tele-density rose from just 2.32 per cent in 1999 to 8.2 per cent in October 2004, the Survey said and added the structure and composition of telecom growth has undergone a substantial change in terms of mobile versus fixed phones with mobile phones accounting for 50 per cent of total phones and private sector 44 per cent.