Booming Indian Wireless Market Has Plenty of Room for Growth

The wireless phone subscriber base in India has already crossed the 100 million mark and will more than double to 265.2 million by 2010, reports In-Stat. Providers will continue to rake in profits, however, Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) levels have declined significantly, and the downward trend is expected to continue, the high-tech market research firm says.

"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 services, and rapid network expansion by operators," says Mayank Jain, In-Stat analyst.

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• ARPU in India is one of the lowest in the world and is expected to decline further to US$5.60 by 2010.
• The prime reason for the decline in ARPU is the downward trend in tariff structure for subscribers due to intense competition.
• The leading operators are Bharti Airtel, BSNL, Reliance, Hutchison, and Idea Cellular. Combined, these players accounted for about 84% of the subscriber base in 2005.

Posted to the site on 7th February 2007