India is the new China at world’s biggest wireless fair
The mobile telecoms industry turned its focus on India at this year’s 3GSM trade fair and away from China, after years of talking about little else but China’s huge market and potential third generation licenses.
Vodafone’s $11 billion deal to buy a controlling stake in India’s fourth-biggest mobile phone firm, Hutchison Essar, announced on the eve of fair, set the agenda as those participants who had not already done so woke up to India’s potential.
With 150 million subscribers but market penetration of still only 15 percent, India is already the world’s fourth-biggest mobile market behind China, the United States and Russia.
It is also the fastest-growing major market and is expected to overtake Russia this year. At its current growth rate, there will be half a billion mobile subscribers in India by 2010.
