India has 3rd highest number of mobile users

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India has 3rd highest number of mobile users
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</td></tr></tbody></table>BS Reporter in New Delhi

December 09, 2006 13:25 IST
<!-- wml_version_starts --> India is all set to overtake Russia as the country with the third highest mobile phone subscribers across the globe by early 2007 -- behind only China and US.
The GSM subscriber base hit the magic 100 million mark in November -- making India the third highest GSM country after China and Russia. However with 36 million CDMA subscribers in November the overall mobile base in the country has hit a staggering 136 million.
IN comparison Russia had 152 million mobile subscribers in November-a gap of only 16 million with India.
Says T V Ramachandran director general Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI): "We will overtake Russia in the first quarter of 2007, the way we are moving. I won't be surprised if we add 10 million every month in 2007 every month if the GSM roll out plan of BSNL is implemented."
Avers Association of Unified Service Providers of India (AUSPI) S C Khanna: "Telecom services are being rolled out in rural and semi rural areas and the industry is getting a good response. With big schemes from USO Fund coming out, the roll out will be further enhanced. In fact, the government's target of 250 million telephone subscribers by December 2007 will be reached by September 2007."
GSM operators added 5 million subscribers in November to hit the target of 100.7 million subscribers, making it the third country in the elite 100 million club, behind China (401.7 million) and Russia (152.2 million).
operators which added 1.91 million in October are expected to add more than 2 million subscribers in November.
In the pecking order of total mobile subscribers (CDMA and GSM), India is fourth behind China, US and Russia. However, while Russia is adding about 2 millions a month, India is adding about 7-8 million and is expected to grow to even 9-10 million a month.
About 40 per cent of the country is now covered with a telecom network and the teledensity is about 17 per cent.
With 65 per cent of the country's population under 30 years of age who will soon start working and the per capita income growing, the massive demand of mobile phones will grow.
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