As we know, India is going to be a massive market, once the wheels start moving.........
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Telecom/Mobile_operators_plan_to_invest_20_bn_in_2_years/articleshow/1840247.cms
Mobile operators plan to invest $20 bn in 2 years
PTI[ SUNDAY, APRIL 01, 2007 11:35:50 AM]
NEW DELHI: Indian cellular operators have lined up investments of about $20 billion over the next two years to bring over 80 per cent of the population under mobile coverage.
The planned investment for the next couple of years is 50 per cent higher than what has been invested in the last 12 years.
Sniffing huge potential in the mobile penetration and coverage area of networks, service providers are planning capital expenditure to the tune of $10 billion each in fiscal 2008 and 2009, analysts at Macquarie Research said.
Given such huge capex plans, the population coverage of mobile services would exceed 80 per cent in the next two years, while providing a much-needed thrust to wireless penetration, the analysts wrote in a research note to its institutional clients.
However, the huge expenditure plans are unlikely to eat into the coffers of the companies, as mobile revenues would keep pace with the massive industry capex, the analysts said.
The combined revenue of all operators from their mobile businesses would more than double to 33.1 billion dollars by 2010, from about $12.8 billion in 2006.
Total revenue of all telecom operators is also set to nearly double to $43.6 billion in four years, from $22.5 billion last year. The revenue share of mobile business would rise to 76 per cent in the same period, from 57 per cent currently.
India, which is adding over six million mobile subscribers every month, had recently surpassed Russia to become the third largest mobile market in the world after China and the US.
The experts believe there is huge growth opportunity in rural areas, where penetration is just about one per cent, while significant growth prospects also remain in urban areas, where penetration is currently 40 per cent.
About 68 per cent of the population lives in rural areas but wireless penetration is a meagre one per cent.
Compared with urban mobile coverage at about 40 per cent, there is a huge potential to increase rural penetration in the country. Low cost handsets, coupled with lower delivery cost of wireless services would drive the market in 2007, the report said.
Most mobile operators in India will gain from the increased mobile penetration and their subscriber base would grow at a faster pace in the next three years.
The total mobile subscriber base in the country is likely to reach 425 million by March 2010 with Bharti Airtel (GSM) and Reliance (CDMA and GSM) emerging as the top two mobile operators in terms of number of subscribers.
Cost of entry level mobile handsets has also come down drastically in the last three years to $23 from $90 and is likely to further come down to $20 by the end of 2007.