Research and Markets: India - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Forecasts

DUBLIN--(Business Wire)--
Research and Markets
(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/3c6542/india_telecoms) has announced
the addition of the "India - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Forecasts" report
to their offering.

Annual Publication, India - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Forecasts, provides
a comprehensive overview of the trends and developments in the
telecommunications and converging media markets in India.

India without a doubt continues to be one of the most dynamic and fastest
growing major telecom markets in the world. There was little evidence by
mid-2009 that the global financial crisis was dampening growth in any
significant way.

The mobile sector in particular continues its strong march forward. The
country's mobile subscriber base has already grown from around 10 million in
2002 to 350 million by the start of 2009. A number of factors have been
responsible for this amazing growth, including low tariffs, low handset prices
and most notably a highly competitive market created by the government and the
regulator. While GSM technology remains dominant, by early 2009 CDMA was still
managing to hang on to a 25% market share

The total mobile market was expanding at an annual rate of close to 50% coming
into 2009. All things considered the mobile industry should continue its present
strong growth for the time being. On the somewhat contentious subject of 3G
licences, the delays continued up to mid-2009, by which time the most recent
roadblock, a dispute between the Department of Telecommunications and the
Ministry of Finance over licence fees, appeared to be close to resolution. In
the meantime the two state-owned operators BSNL and MTNL had made a start on
rolling out their pilot 3G networks.

With fixed-line subscribers at slightly less than 38 million in early 2009, the
market has witnessed a modest decline in that particular segment. Growth
initially stalled in 2006 and fixed-line numbers are not expected to pick up
again for some time. (It should be noted that in 2005 India's telecom regulator
began counting fixed WLL services as 'wireless' services and not as 'wireline'
meaning that they were absorbed into the mobile statistics and were not able to
be separated out any longer as fixed services. This has caused some confusion in
the reporting data.) The total telephone subscriber base (mobile and fixed) had
passed 400 million by February 2009, as the number of subscribers was rose by an
average of 12 million per month in the first half of the year.

Regulatory reform has been central to the development of India's telecoms
market. Sweeping reforms by successive governments over the last decade have
dramatically changed the nature of telecommunications in the country. In the
meantime, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India remains committed to further
regulatory and structural reforms. The adoption of Unified Licensing, a change
in the Access Deficit Charge regime, and the encouragement of increased
infrastructure sharing, especially the towers for mobile networks, are all
contributing to ongoing growth. Another important initiative has been the
government's revised Foreign Direct Investment policy which increased the
foreign ownership cap from 49% to 74%.

If anything it could be said that the regulation of the market has been overly
enthusiastic; there are some signs that the market was starting to suffer from
the complexity of the regulatory regime. Changing the regulation of the industry
was certainly not easy with many observers initially being sceptical of the
strategies adopted by the government.

Key highlights:

* The mobile market continues to move along its boom path; by early 2009, India
had 350 million mobile subscribers.
* The mobile market continued to expand at an annual rate around 50% into 2008.
* GSM remains the dominant technology in the mobile market, but CDMA maintains a
solid 25% market share.
* The number of broadband Internet subscribers in India is starting to become
more significant, having increased by more than 70% in 2008, yet broadband
subscribers still only comprised 0.5% of the population at the start of 2009.
* DSL, representing about 81% of the local broadband market, is steadily losing
market share to other non-DSL broadband platforms.
* After experiencing a series of frustrating bureaucratic delays, India looks
set to issue 3G licences in the second half of 2009.
* The MCIT's target of 500 million telephone subscribers (fixed and mobile) by
2010 looks likely to be exceeded by around 100 million.

Fixed-line services:

* Total subscribers 37.9 million 37.0 million
* Annual growth (e) -4% -2%
* Fixed-line penetration (population) 3.2% 3.1%
* Fixed-line penetration (household) 19% 18%

Broadband Internet:

* Total subscribers 5.4 million 7.5 million
* Annual growth 74% 40%
* Broadband penetration (population) 0.5% 0.6%
* Broadband penetration (household) 3% 4%

Mobile services:

* Total subscribers 347 million 510 million
* Annual growth 49% 46%
* Mobile penetration (population) 30% 43%

Key Topics Covered:

* Key Statistics
* Telecommunications Market
* Regulatory Environment
* Fixed Network Operators in India
* Telecommunications Infrastructure
* Internet Market
* Broadband Market
* Convergence
* Mobile Communications
* Forecasts
* Glossary of Abbreviations

Companies Mentioned:

* Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)
* Bharti Airtel (formerly Bharti Telenet)
* Hughes Telecom
* Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL)
* Tata Teleservices Ltd
* Reliance Infocomm
* Shyam Telelink
* BSNL/MTNL merger
* International operators
* Market development
* Tata Communications (formerly VSNL)
* Data Access
* Bharti Telesonic
* Reliance Communications

For more information visit
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/3c6542/india_telecoms

Laura Wood
Senior Manager
press@researchandmarkets.com
Fax from USA: 646-607-1907
Fax from rest of the world: +353-1-481-1716

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