Infrastructure Sharing To Speed Rural Network Rollout

India’s wireless subscriber base has witnessed a blistering growth of 54 per cent over the past one year by adding over 100 million new users into the mobile club.

As per data available with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the country’s mobile users touched 296.08 million in July-end this year against 192.98 million last year in the same month, a year-on-year growth of 53.44 per cent.

In July this year, the telecom industry witnessed the highest-ever addition of 9.22 million wireless subscribers taking the total teledensity of the country to 29.08 per cent.

India has been adding more than eight million subscribers consistently for more than six months now, and this trend may continue as 700 million more remain to be tapped.

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Being a low-tariff mobile market, cheap calls have broken the class barrier to accommodate all kinds of subscribers. Call rates today are as low as a few paise per minute.

Analysts said growth of India’s mobile market remains robust as competition among mobile operators continues to intensify. With the mobile penetration level having just exceeded 25 per cent, considerable growth potential still remains, particularly in the massive rural markets.

All the mobile operators have started expanding into the rural markets. Their
network-infrastructure-sharing initiatives will help speed up network roll out in the rural and remote areas. The anticipated 3G spectrum licencing will give yet another boost to the competition level and help stimulate industry growth.

However, wireline or fixed line connections fell by 0.16 million in July 2008, as per the data released by the telecom regulator. (PTI)