02-16-2008, 07:25 PM
<b>India adds 83 mn mobile users in a year</b>
India's telecom story is shining. The country has become the fastest growing telecom market in the world, adding a staggering 83 million mobile subscribers over the last 12 months.
<b>At this pace, India is all set to overtake US to become the world's second largest mobile market by May this year or just another three months.
Around February last year, India overtook Russia to become the third largest mobile market.</b>
India's total mobile subscriber base now stands at 237 million in comparison with China's 534 million, US's 257 million and Russia's 172 million. At current growth rates, India will cross the 264 million mark by May, overtaking the US.
According to the latest data available from Informer Telecoms and Media, 83 million is the highest number of subscribers added to any mobile network in the world between February 2007 and January 2008.
China, which used to be the fastest growing till 2006, added just 76 million subscribers in the same period, showing signs of a mild but definite slowdown.
And this has been going on for while. India has not only taken the lead over China in terms of mobile growth for quite some time, the country has also been able to sustain the lead. This shows the stupendous growth an potential of the mobile industry.
The good news is that even with 263 million, India's mobile teledensity will still be a mere 24%, allowing tremendous room for growth. Since only 350 million of India's population lives in urban India, the next phase of growth is expected to come from the spread of wireless services to the rural heartland.
The US added a total of 20 million subscribers, pale even in comparison with Pakistan, which added 26 million subscribers, taking its total subscriber base to 79 million.
India added an average of 6.9 million subscribers per month in the period under review, China 6.3 million, US 1.6 million, Pakistan 2.1 million and Bangladesh 1.1 million.
The telecom sector's achievements come despite a policy turmoil centred around availability and pricing of spectrum, a resource needed for connectivity.
India is expected to have 450 million mobile subscribers by the turn of the decade, which means every third Indian will have his/her own mobile phone by 2010.
<b>The country has been blazing the telecom trail since 2004, set to add more phones every month than it did in the first 45 years since Independence.</b>
India's telecom story is shining. The country has become the fastest growing telecom market in the world, adding a staggering 83 million mobile subscribers over the last 12 months.
<b>At this pace, India is all set to overtake US to become the world's second largest mobile market by May this year or just another three months.
Around February last year, India overtook Russia to become the third largest mobile market.</b>
India's total mobile subscriber base now stands at 237 million in comparison with China's 534 million, US's 257 million and Russia's 172 million. At current growth rates, India will cross the 264 million mark by May, overtaking the US.
According to the latest data available from Informer Telecoms and Media, 83 million is the highest number of subscribers added to any mobile network in the world between February 2007 and January 2008.
China, which used to be the fastest growing till 2006, added just 76 million subscribers in the same period, showing signs of a mild but definite slowdown.
And this has been going on for while. India has not only taken the lead over China in terms of mobile growth for quite some time, the country has also been able to sustain the lead. This shows the stupendous growth an potential of the mobile industry.
The good news is that even with 263 million, India's mobile teledensity will still be a mere 24%, allowing tremendous room for growth. Since only 350 million of India's population lives in urban India, the next phase of growth is expected to come from the spread of wireless services to the rural heartland.
The US added a total of 20 million subscribers, pale even in comparison with Pakistan, which added 26 million subscribers, taking its total subscriber base to 79 million.
India added an average of 6.9 million subscribers per month in the period under review, China 6.3 million, US 1.6 million, Pakistan 2.1 million and Bangladesh 1.1 million.
The telecom sector's achievements come despite a policy turmoil centred around availability and pricing of spectrum, a resource needed for connectivity.
India is expected to have 450 million mobile subscribers by the turn of the decade, which means every third Indian will have his/her own mobile phone by 2010.
<b>The country has been blazing the telecom trail since 2004, set to add more phones every month than it did in the first 45 years since Independence.</b>