1. U.S.-based Qualcomm will be granted an Internet service license, India’s Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar said. This paves the way for the U.S. company to launch broadband services in the country. Qualcomm’s initial application for the license was rejected after it won the wireless spectrum auction in four of India’s 22 telecom zones.
2. New data released by Cellular Operators’ Association of India says the country’s top mobile phone carrier, Bharti Airtel, added 935,947 mobile subscribers in September. Airtel now has 172.8 million total subscribers in India. Vodafone added 848,204 subscribers in the same month, taking their total to about 145 million. Idea Cellular added 1.74 million mobile users in September and their total subscribers reached 100.2 million, whereas Telenor added 1.92 million, taking their total base to 29.7 million.
3. Sony Ericsson while presenting its Q3 results stated that the global handset market has registered modest growth so far in 2011 over the previous year. The market for smartphones has, however, registered robust growth. The share of smartphones sold by the company in Q3 was more than 80%. “We will continue to invest in the smartphone market, shifting the entire portfolio to smartphones during 2012,” noted a company release quoting Sony Ericsson President and CEO Bert Nordberg.
4. A note released by India’s Department of Telecom has indicated a major improvement in the country’s tele-density. The report, titled “Progress and status of different Telecom development parameters,” states that “even though the overall tele-density for the country has improved substantially, there is a stark difference between the tele-density in urban and rural areas. While the urban tele-density was at 163.44% at the end of July indicating a rapidly saturating urban market, the corresponding rural tele-density figures of just around 35.97% pointed towards the huge potential which the rural markets present.”
