INDIA AIMS FOR 500 MILLION MOBILE PHONE USERS

FROM P.VIJIAN

NEW DELHI, Nov 21 (Bernama) -- By end of the year, at least half of India's
1.2 billion people could be walking with mobile phones, making it the world's
largest cellular market, perhaps only rivaled by its neighbour China.

India is experiencing an unprecedented spurt in the number of mobile phone
users across the country which has breached 450 million subscribers.

" We are confident that with 470 million mobile connections in September
2009, we will be well poised to cross yet another landmark of 500 million mobile
connections before end of this year," said A. Raja, Minister of
Telecommunications and Information Technology here Saturday.

The push-pull factors of growing economic prosperity, need for connectivity,
liberalisation of telecommunication policies, entry of foreign telecommunication
players and drop in tariffs had largely fuelled the explosion in users.

India had only four million mobile phone subscribers in 2001 but the
spectrum changed as the sector witnessed a blistering growth, attracting nearly
10 million customers every month.

China's remains the world's largest cellular market with over 600 million
users.

India's telecommunication industry has one of the highest growth rates in
the world with a robust 43 per cent annual growth that had helped the country
achieve overall teledensity of 44 per cent in the country.

Overall, India's telecommunication sector is projected to generate revenue
worth US$43 billion (RM150 billion) between 2008 and 2009, making it one of the
major drivers of India's US$1.22 trillion (RM4.27 trillion) economy.

-- BERNAMA