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India to have 70 M mobile users in 5 yrs, says Gartner
By siliconindia
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Thursday, 15 May 2003, 19:30 IST
BANGALORE: The number of cellular phone subscribers in India will rise to about 70 million by end-2007, surging seven times from the start of this year on the back of cut-rate prices, technology researcher Gartner said on Wednesday.
Gartner also forecast the number of mobile phones in Asia would double to nearly 800 million by 2007, with the bulk of the growth coming from China, India and Indonesia.
"Growth in the Indian cellular market continues on an upswing as the cost of service and entry barriers go down," Kobita Desai, principal analyst at Gartner India, said in a statement.
India now has about 13 million cellular users, but that is not a patch on China's tally of about 220 million users.
Home-grown Bharti Tele-Ventures, 16 percent owned by Singapore Telecommunications, is India's largest cellular operator, with about a quarter of the market.
State-run telecoms giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, which launched its services in October, has about a fifth of the market and is fast catching up with Bharti.
Another key player is the Indian unit of Hutchison Whampoa.