India - Mobile Communications - Market Overview

Synopsis

Growth in India’s mobile sector, from a humble start in the mid-1990s, has really picked up pace in recent years, aided by higher subscriber volumes, lower tariffs and falling handset prices. Home to a clutch of global operators working with local companies, India had around 520 million mobile subscribers (including both GSM and CDMA services) coming into 2010. And the market was continuing to grow at an annual rate of over 50%. While ARPU has been steadily declining as competing operators offer cheaper tariffs the usage levels have remained reasonably high thus slowing the decline in revenues. There had been a major push in recent years to take mobile services into the poorer and rural areas of the country, a move that was weighing down on ARPU. This report provides an overview of India’s mobile market.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
  
• 2. Mobile communications
  
  • 2.1 Overview of India’s mobile market
    
  • 2.2 Mobile statistics
    
  • 2.3 Mobile market segments
    
  • 2.4 Development issues
    
    • 2.4.1 MVNOs
      
    • 2.4.2 Spectrum
      
    • 2.4.3 Rural expansion
      
    • 2.4.4 Future growth
      
    • 2.4.5 Foreign investment
      
    • 2.4.6 Revenue and ARPU
      
    • 2.4.7 Pricing and usage
      
  • 2.5 Regulatory issues
    
    • 2.5.1 Background
      
    • 2.5.2 Year 2009
      
    • 2.5.3 Year 2008
      
• 3. Related reports
  

• Table 1 – Mobile subscribers and annual change – 2006 - 2011
• Table 2 – Mobile subscribers (GSM and CDMA) – 2002 - 2009
• Table 3 – GSM mobile subscribers and annual change – 1997 - 2009
• Table 4 – Mobile penetration urban & rural – 2007; 2009
• Table 5 – Mobile services revenue – 1996 - 2008; 2010; 2012
• Table 6 – Mobile ARPU by technology, prepaid/postpaid/blended – June 2009
• Table 7 – Mobile ARPU (GSM and CDMA) – 2005 - 2009
• Table 8 – Mobile subscribers and market share by region/circle – 2008