India to Join Half Billion Mobile Phone User Club

The only country that 500 million mobile phone users is China. India is going to join the club within 2009. Earlier, it was expected that it would happen 2010 but now there is a strong possibility that we wont have to wait for next year. This year has still almost 3 solid months left. A lot of credit goes to the Indian government. They have maintained liberal policy for the last 5 years at least and this attitude has helped to increase tele-density at an astonishing pace. I think that the country reached 100 million mark in 2006. So, in just 3 years, another 400 million new connection came.

A lot of credit must go to the mobile phone companies too. They have come up without very attractive and affordable offers. Well, one thing that does not satisfy me is the fact that the mobile phone companies are mainly focusing on increasing the number of connections. They are not giving that much attention to value added services. This is one area they must focus because after 2011, I don’t think the market will grow that much. Then the main battle will be on getting more revenue per user.