Fixed-line phone market to grow by 22 percent

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New Delhi: India's fixed-line telephone market will grow by 22 percent to reach 5,500 crore (55 billion/$1.1 billion) by 2013, says a report by IT research and advisory firm Gartner. "The Indian fixed-line market will see growth from broadband and Internet access sectors, which will together grow at the rate of 22 percent to reach 55 billion by 2013," the report released here Monday said. The communications market is estimated to to grow at an average 2.6 percent annually from 21,100 crore in 2008 to 24,000 crore in 2013, Gartner added. The communications market includes consumer voice services, consumer broadband access services and total consumer Internet access services. The fixed-line subscriber base will remain at 37 million connections in 2013, while the broadband subscriber base will increase by 26 percent to reach 16 million subscribers, the report predicted. Revenue from voice services will continue to dominate the overall fixed-line services in India. However, its contribution will go down from 91 percent in 2008 to 77 percent in 2013. The number of fixed lines will continue to decrease slightly until 2012, but will start picking up again in 2013 as carriers will focus more on fixed broadband, bundling voice lines free with it, Gartner said. The connection and calling revenue will, however, fall slowly, it added. Revenue from broadband services will significantly contribute to the overall growth of fixed-line services in India, with a growth of 25 percent from 2008 to 2013. Broadband will overtake dial-up as the primary access technology by 2012-end. According to Gartner, there will be a drop in broadband average revenue per user as penetration to semi-urban and rural areas increase. Wireless broadband services will also grow significantly from 2010, by expanding broadband coverage to areas previously not covered by copper telephone lines, it added.
Source: IANS