'India will be 2nd largest mobile phone market'

New Delhi: India is set to emerge as the second largest mobile phone market in the world after China in April with the subscriber base already crossing the 250-million mark, the country's telecom regulator said in a report Monday.

China and the US have 550.50 million and 260.50 million subscribers for mobile phone services at present, against 250.93 million for India, as per the study released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

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"It may also be noted that India is likely to become second largest wireless network in the world after China in the first half of April 2008," the study said, adding 8.49 million new subscribers joined the network in February.

"India's wireless subscriber base in the first half of April 2008 will surpass that of the US and will become the second in the world. Not only this, the total subscriber base of India will also cross 300 million mark in April 2008."

This, the report said, was in spite of a slight decrease in the wire-line base to 39.18 million subscribers in February, against 39.22 million subscribers in January.

The report also said that the country's telephone density had increased to 25.31 percent in February, against 24.63 percent in the previous month, thus crossing the 25-percent landmark for the first time ever.

In 1990, India's tele-density was a mere 0.65 percent - the same as China's.
Source: IANS