As I drive on the highway between Bangalore and Mysore two things strike me. I have not lost voice and data connectivity for even a minute since I left Bangalore airport. And every few minutes I can notice a hoarding, banner or display of one or the other telecom brand. In a country where it can take twenty years to build a bridge, the development in the telecom sector is tremendous. Yes, there are still many things that are not correct and the future maybe uncertain but the change it has created - at the grassroots level - should not be under-estimated. 300 million people (at least) are connected in a way they have never been in this country. The freedom movement is the only other thing that comes to mind. Critical observers will say that this happened in spite of the Government, and they would probably be almost correct. The only credit that I would give is for NTP 99 which really opened up the market; that was the first and last pro-active and coordinated policy work. It is tempting to say that the next decade will be more exciting than the previous one. I really hope that it's true, for the sake of the 800 million others that are waiting to be connected.