Mobile Market Riding High on Untapped Indian Rural Market

With the largely untapped rural market, India's rural mobile market has the potential to reach upto the subscriber base of 320 Million by 2012, as per the findings of a new research report from RNCOS.

The anticipated increase in the number of rural mobile subscribers in India is mainly accredited to the affordable services and low-cost handsets, as per the report. The urban market constitutes the maximum portion of the Indian mobile sector, but is now heading towards saturation with a tele-density of over 70%. On the other hand, the rural market is largely unexploited and provides a huge growth potential as 70% of India's population lives in rural areas.

Realizing the future growth potential of the rural mobile market and rising rural income, several leading handsets manufacturers, like Nokia, are lining up to enter this market by teaming up with some micro finance institutions. Among service providers, BSNL and Bharti Airtel are the major players, but others like Tata, Idea, and Vodafone are developing various strategies to exploit the rural mobile market of the country.

Posted to the site on 12th June 2009