India to beat US in mobile telephony

Set to become second largest player in mobile subscribers after China, the next level of innovative applications will creat many global giants from India in the mobile / wireless space

India, which added 8.53 million new mobile users in February, is set to become the second-largest wireless market in the world after China by April 2008, telecom regulator TRAI said on Monday. As per data compiled by TRAI, India had 250.93 million wireless users by end-February, compared with 256 million in the US and 540.5 million in China.

“India’s monthly wireless subscriber addition is the highest in the range of 8-9 million. Thus, India’s wireless subscriber base during the first half of April 2008 will surpass that of the US and become the second-largest wireless network in the world. Not only this, the total subscriber base (wireless plus fixedline) of India will also cross the 300-million mark in April 2008,” TRAI said in a statement.

According to CTIA, the association of wireless operators in the US, the current subscriber base there is 256 million, and the country is adding about 2-3 million subscribers a month, as against 8-9 million in India. However, India for the past several months had boasted of the largest subscriber additions in the world but it lost out to China last month.

Source : Economic Times