Report: India's Mobile Market Subscribers to Top 350 Million by 2010

Authored by robert on August 1, 2006 - 10:31am.

According to a new report by The Diffusion Group, the number of mobile subscribers in India is expected to grow from just over 100 million today to more than 350 million by 2010 - an addition of 250 million subscribers in just four years.

The report makes the following key point: “While China's market is widely heralded as the most immediate and largest opportunity for mobile vendors, India's growth rate will be equally explosive. When combined, China and India have a population of approximately 2.5 billion people and comprise the single largest opportunity for mobile vendors in the history of mobile telecom. The evolution of these two markets will reshape the global telecommunications and technology landscape, as well as realign market share among today's mobile market leaders”.

The editor of the report, Michael Greeson, also notes that “modern mobile telecommunications technology offers developing nations a way to cover expansive 'greenfield' territories (areas bereft of home or personal telecommunications) in a faster and less expensive way than traditional fixed telecom infrastructure. Combined with the world's lowest per-minute charges, inexpensive handsets, and the social status of mobile phone ownership, India's mobile operators are preparing to exploit this opportunity”.

Other key findings from TDG's study of India's mobile markets include the following:

Despite 12 years of deregulation, the number of fixed-line telecom subscribers has increased less than 15% in the last three years
In India, the cost of installing new fixed lines is roughly three times the price of installing a mobile line;
As of early 2006, about 50% of all the towns and villages in India could receive a mobile signal.
Despite the fact that government taxes on mobile phone revenues are amongst the highest in the world, TDG expects that taxes, levies, and spectrum fees will be reduced to cover only the Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund and administrative costs;
Given the rapid pace of growth, upgrading current infrastructure has taken a backseat to network expansion and quality of service in most areas is extremely poor; and
Total mobile service revenue will increase over 170% from 2006 through 2010 - which translates to a compound annual growth rate of 22.1%.