India to have 275 Million 3G subscribers by 2013 Date:   Thursday , October 01, 2009 Despite gloomier 3G situation in India, the number of 3G subscribers is expected to increase significantly in coming years. A recent study by Evalueserve, a provider of Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) services, has predicted that there would be 275 million 3G subscribers in India by 2013. It also predicted that the number of 3G enabled handsets in the country will reach 395 million by that year. The wretched 3G scenario in India is long evident from the miniscule 3G subscriber base of the public telecom companies like MTNL and BSNL. Their current subscriber count stands at mere 1000 and 5000 subscribers respectively, and MTNL is even trying to give away this service on franchise basis. The report states that the urban segment will account for 80 percent of total subscriber base, as the demand for the regional content like video clips, mobile comic strips and mobile magazines is expected to surge in the rural segment after 2012. 3G subscriber base growth is expected to be driven majorly by the adoption of the service by the urban-above poverty line customer segment. This segment is expected to be the fastest adopter of the new technology. Even though 3G services are yet to be made largely available in the Indian market, the user base of 3G handset is already above 20 million. The 3G handsets are expected to account 40 percent of the mobile handset base in India by 2013. As per the study the total mobile subscriber base in India could cross 850 million by 2012 end and reach nearly one billion by the end of 2013. The overall mobile penetration is expected to reach 78.3 percent in 2013 from about 30 percent in 2008. In 2013, the penetration is expected to reach 142.5 percent in the urban-above poverty line, 79 percent in the rural-above poverty line and 15 percent in the urban-below poverty line segments.