The Hindu Business Line : India overtakes China

Remarkable Growth
The growth is a `direct result of the forward-looking policies' of the Government
India is well on course to exceed the COAI forecast of 130 m subscribers by December 2006
It is estimated mobile subscribers will grow by another 500 million to reach 3 billion by the end of 2007

New Delhi , Sept. 13

Indian telecom operators added the highest number of new cellular users in the world in a single month in August.

With 5.9 million new mobile users, India has beaten China, which added 5.19 million new cellular users in the same period. Other countries in the top five include Russia with 3.6 million new mobile subscribers, Brazil with 2 million additions and the Philippines where 1.9 million new cellular subscribers were added in August.

Explosive Growth

Mr T.V. Ramachandran, Director General, Cellular Operator's Association of India, said that this explosive growth in subscriber numbers was a direct result of the forward looking policies of the Government, the enabling regulatory structure and the commitment of the industry to deliver increased access to subscribers with ever improving affordability. "With this growth, India was well on course to exceed the COAI forecast of 130 million subscribers by December 2006," said Mr Ramachandran

As per global analysts Wireless Intelligence, the last half billion cellular subscribers had come in a record time of 12 months and has been mainly added in the very high-growth emerging markets of China, India and Russia. According to Wireless Intelligence, the global mobile industry has been growing at around 40 million subscribers per month, which is the highest volume of growth that the market has ever seen. The share of the Asia Pacific region in this growth is 41 per cent with India and China alone accounting for 25 per cent of the total subscriber growth worldwide over the last year.

Going forward, it is estimated that the cellular mobile subscribers will grow by another 500 million to reach 3 billion by the end of 2007. As per experts, the contribution by India to this growth would be the maximum and is estimated to be 80 million new cellular subscribers.