When Airtel introduced mobile telephony from the national capital this day 10 years ago, a call cost Rs.16.50 a minute. Today, it is as cheap as 50 paise, depending on who your service provider is.

Little wonder then, an industry expert is confident the government's estimate of 200-300 million new subscribers being added to the present base of 51 million by 2010 will be achieved much before that.

"I would say the estimate is rather conservative. I think the figure will be achieved in the next two to three years," Bharti Teletech Vice Chairman and Managing Director Rakesh Bharti Mittal said while speaking of the strides made by sister concern Bharti Tele-Ventures, which provides the Airtel service, in the last decade.

Mittal attributed the burgeoning market to lower tariffs.

"Whenever tariffs fall, the number of subscribers goes up," Mittal told.

"We anticipate tremendous growth in the next few years," he added, declining to comment on Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran's prediction that tariffs would fall another nine percent.

Beginning with 6,500 users in its first year, Airtel is today India's largest GSM cellular operator with a market share of 27.65 percent, followed by BSNL (23.39 percent) and Hutch 19.08 percent.

Not surprisingly, Airtel celebrated in style, running five display advertisements across eight columns of a leading daily, with two of these being on the front page. They carried slogans like "10 years of 'good you called'," "10 years of 'I'm 2 mins away'," "10 years of 'nice tune yaar'," "10 years of 'got a charger'?" and "10 years of "hd a gr8 time, thnx'."

Airtel was soon joined by Hutch, into which European major Vodafone has just bought in. Two state-run firms - Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited then joined the race. The former has made major inroads in rural and urban areas while the latter has remained more of a non-starter. Today's other national player in the GSM market is Idea, while Reliance Infocomm and Tata Indicom provide limited mobility CDMA services.

Mobiles have altered lifestyles and changed the way we do business. Fishermen in Kerala use them to get the best prices from purchasers, truck operators use them to keep track of their vehicles, vegetable vendors use them to take orders from homes, tradesmen use them to increase their mobility - the list is endless.

Much has changed in the last 10 years. From the weighty handsets of those days that cost Rs.30,000-40,000 have evolved ultra slim models that weigh as little as 35 grams. Prices have fallen to as little as Rs.2,000 for entry level models, while the most expensive phone is the Vertu, which starts at Rs.1.7 million.

No longer do batteries lose memory unless they completely drain out before a recharge. Today, a mobile is much, much more than a mere phone - you can shoot pictures and video, listen to music, play games, book a train ticket, and send and receive e-mails - to name just a few of the things a mobile is capable of.

Bluetooth technology has made mobiles truly hands free, while SMS, MMS and Voice Mail have radically altered the manner in which Indians communicate.

Airtel has a lot more lined up - enhanced Voice Mail and credit card transactions through mobiles, to name just two.

There is a flip side too. Mobile phones have started becoming a menace with unsolicited calls by the dozen from tele-marketers hawking loans, cars, credit cards, holidays, insurance and the like.

But, as travel consultant Atul Seth put it: "I'd rather put up with the evil for the benefits a mobile provides."

Mobile telephony is just one aspect of Bharti Tele-Ventures' activities. It also offers mobile, fixed line, national, and international long distance services, very small aperture terminal-based voice and data transmission services, Internet services, and network solutions.

It offers Internet and Internet-related services like dedicated leased lines, virtual private networks, Web hosting and server collocation, and Internet mailing services to both residential and corporate customers. The company provides broadband connectivity for various end uses, including data, information technology-enabled services, and other high bandwidth services.