The Hindu : Business : Cellular services revenue to cross $37 b

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Thursday, Jul 03, 2008
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Business

Cellular services revenue to cross $37 b

Special Correspondent

— FILE PHOTO

Students checking their results on mobile phones in Bangalore.

NEW DELHI: The booming Indian cellular market will see its subscriber base exceeding 73.7 crore and its revenue crossing a huge $37 billion by 2012, making India the world’s second largest wireless market after China in terms of mobile connections, said leading global information technology research and advisory company Gartner.

“Total cellular services revenue in India is projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18 per cent from 2008-12 to exceed $37 billion. The mobile subscriber base is set to exceed 73.7 crore connections by 2012 growing at a CAGR of 21 per cent in the same period,” it said in a statement.

“The growth in the mobile subscriber base is on the back of a rapidly proliferating rural market, lower handset costs, and low tariff rates in the Indian market,” said Gartner’s senior research analyst Madhusudan Gupta.

“Rural telephony will continue to trigger growth and is expected to grow four-fold during the forecast period. Call rates have further dropped to about 1.5 cents per minute narrowing the gap with fixed-line rates. These factors along with an increasing competitive landscape will fuel market growth and encourage the adoption of wireless services in the rural and semi urban provinces of India,” he added.

Gartner said that the Indian mobile market continued to be dominated by prepaid subscribers.

Prepaid connections accounted for more than 89 per cent of all mobile connections in 2007 and are expected to grow to more than 92 per cent by 2012.

According to Gartner, the industry will witness several changes in the coming year that could revolutionise the face of the telecom industry with the introduction of new technologies such as WiMAX, 3G and mobile number portability (MNP).

India will move to its next phase of evolution with the commercial launch of WiMAX and 3G in 2009.

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