Indian market boom expected to continue

As India’s economy continues to boom so too does the mobile-phone market. More than 100 million Indians are currently subscribed to wireless telephone service and that group is expected to grow to 265.2 million over the next three years, according to a new report released last week.
While wireless carriers in India are raking in the profits from this momentous surge, the average revenue per user (ARPU) is already declining at an equally impressive rate, market research firm In-Stat reported. With ARPU in India already among the lowest in the world, intense competition and a subsequent downward trend in tariff structure for subscribers should drive it down to $5.60 by 2010, the report concluded.
“The primary growth drivers for the subscriber base include the fact that India is an under-penetrated market, low tariff structure, increasing ability of the population to afford mobile service, and rapid network expansion by operators,” said Mayank Jain, an analyst at In-Stat.
The five leading wireless operators in India-Bhart Airtel, BSNL, Reliance, Hutchison, and Idea Cellular-accounted for a combined 84 percent of the subscribers in 2005.