Synopsis
The dynamic Indian mobile telephony market has seen a number of important takeovers and mergers, resulting in significant shifts in market share among the players. Initially three major private players – Hutchison Telecom (subsequently acquired by Vodafone), Bharti, and Idea Cellular - emerged from the fray to do battle. The entry of the state-owned enterprises –BSNL and MTNL – as mobile operators saw BSNL in particular throw out a major challenge to the private operators. And then we have seen the arrival (through the back door) of the CDMA-based services. Among these, Reliance has emerged as a very serious challenger to the GSM operators. This report looks at the operators in this ever-changing sector, providing some pertinent statistics.