India set to become world’s second largest mobile market

Overall telephone user base nears 300-million mark

Our Bureau, The Hindu, New Delhi, March 24 '08 

Driven by a huge surge in mobile usage, India’s telephone subscriber base is set to cross the 300-million mark in April, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Mobile user base has crossed the 250-million mark and going by the current growth rate India would become the second largest cellular market in the world by April after China.

A total of 8.49 million new telephone connections, including fixed lines, were added in February taking the total number to 290 million. The overall tele-density is 25.3 per cent at the end of February.

Wireless segment

In the wireless segment, 8.53 million new subscribers were added in February. The US is currently the second largest mobile market with 260 million subscribers. TRAI expects India to overtake this by April. China is way ahead with 540 million mobile users.

In the fixed line telephone segment, there was a decline in user base from 39.2 million in January to 39.1 million in February indicating a continued preference for mobile phones. In the broadband segment, the subscriber base has reached 3.47 million compared to 2.21 million in February 2007.