Indian Mobile users to touch 993 million by 2014
The country's mobile subscriber base is expected to touch 993 million by 2014, led by the rural market, according to research firm Gartner.
Gartner expects the world's fastest-growing mobile market to close this year with over 660 million subscribers, it said in a statement.
"The arrival of new players in the Indian mobile sector has led to fierce competition, which has sustained the strong subscriber growth seen in 2009," Gartner Senior Research Analyst Neha Gupta said.
With a mobile penetration of 44.5 per cent in 2009-end, there is still ample room for growth in 2010 and beyond, she added.
India is the second-largest wireless market in the world, after China with 618 million mobile subscribers at the end of May 2010, according to telecom regulator TRAI.
"Mobile market penetration is projected to increase further, mainly due to the service providers increasing their focus on the rural market and lower priced handsets," Gupta said.
By the end of 2014, total mobile services revenue in India is forecast to exceed to USD 23 billion from USD 19.3 billion at the end of 2010, she said.
Moreover, Gartner expects the growth to slow down a bit in the coming years.
"Sharp fall in call charges and launch of services by new mobile operators helped the country step up mobile subscriber additions in the past one year, but increasing mobile penetration could lead to some slow down in future growth," she said.
Gupta added the average revenue per user will go down further and data usage would go up in the next few years.
"Expect a dramatic decline in growth of voice revenue from 2010 until the end-2014, although this will be balanced by increased revenue from data services which will significantly contribute to the overall growth of mobile services in India," she said.
