India leads in telecom services: Gartner

India has made major improvement in international and domestic long-distance services in 2004 despite a complex regulatory environment, uneven field and limited competition, according to global research firm Gartner.

"The biggest improvement was in voice services as prices dropped dramatically to a point where India became competitive compared with developed markets," Kobita Desai, Gartner India Principal Analyst said, quoting the telecom study conducted for large enterprises.

Service quality, which was "a major problem in the past", has also improved significantly, but it is not consistent enough for large companies, she said. Overall, the country has made a "huge progress" in pricing, she said, adding it is expected to continue with an increased competition in the global market.

Gartner also rated domestic long distance and international services for both voice and data - including leased lines, frame relay, automated teller machines, Internet Protocol-Virtual Private Networks in the study.

However, consistency in service quality is one of the "weaknesses" and India needs to focus on it in line with its intention to become an IT and outsourcing hub.

The service quality had been "diminished" by problems in last mile and India needs to quickly address this problem as "reliability is more important than low prices", especially for foreign companies outsourcing their IT operations to India, Desai added.