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India approaching 1B mobile subscribers

4G fueling growth

India is reportedly on its way to eclipsing 1 billion mobile subscribers. According to a report by Peter Evans, senior analyst Asia at BuddeComm, the world’s second largest country had 970 million subscribers as of March 2015.

Currently 77% of India’s population has access to mobile technology. That number is expected to reach 100% by 2020. In 2014, mobile technology brought in approximately $115 billion in value-added and made up 5.5% of India’s overall gross domestic product. The rollout of “4G” networks and technologies is a driving force behind the expected growth. Evans says the entrance of Reliance Jio, a new operator in the country, increased competition in an already hotly competitive market.

Bharti Airtel has already begun trials of its TD-LTE network in 20 cities with other major operators including Aircel, Vodafone, Reliance Jio, Idea Cellular and BSNL set to do the same by the end of this year or early next year.

The country is also overcoming regulatory issues that once stifled growth in the mobile space. The market grew on the back of sweeping reforms and new processes for auctioning spectrum, which was successful “despite criticism that the reserve prices had been set to high,” according to Evans.

“The removal of the cap on foreign investment in the telecom sector was yet another strong signal to the market of the government’s intentions,” Evans added. “The telecom market was still waiting on regulatory guidance with respect to mergers and acquisitions, however; this was important for the process of market consolidation to continue.”

Evans also points to the country’s booming economy, growing middle class, low tariffs and handset prices, along with the highly competitive market as major factors fueling the growing mobile market

Unsurprisingly, the expansion in mobile has led to a decline in fixed-line growth in India. That market has been seeing zero to negative growth in recent years. Despite only a 3% fixed-line penetration, 99% of the country has access to a telephone. In early 2015, there were around 26 million fixed-line subscribers.

ABOUT AUTHOR

Joey Jackson
Joey Jacksonhttp://www.RCRWireless.com
[email protected] Joey Jackson is an editor and production manager at RCRWireless.com and RCRtv based in Austin, Texas. Before coming to RCR, Joey was a multimedia journalist for multiple TV news affiliates around the country. He is in charge of custom video production as well as the production of the "Digs," "Gigs," "How it works" and "Tower Stories" segments for RCRtv. He also writes daily about the latest developments in telecom and ICT news. An Oregon native, Joey graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in journalism and communications. He enjoys telling the stories of the people and companies that are shaping the landscape of the mobile world. Follow him on Twitter at @duck_jackson.