Mobile Phones in India

One of the most industrious and up-and-coming countries in the world is India. In many ways, this little technological mecca with over a billion people is embracing technology in ways that the rest of the world is not, and it is leading the world in several aspects of IT and technology. So, what about mobile phones in India? How many people have them? Who are the main providers?

There are 129 million mobile phone subscribers in India. 13% of the Indian population owns a mobile phone. The average caller makes 300 minutes of calls a month. Dual sim mobiles are gaining in popularity at a huge rate.  There are 7 million new mobile phone subscribers each month. Each of the major mobile phone providers in India has about a 20% market share. Telecommunications statistics in India are staggering. India has the largest-growing telecom network in the entire world because it has such a large population and development potential. The top operators in India include Airtel, Aircel, MTNL, and others. The rural areas of India still lack the critical infrastructure, however, so a lot of people out there don’t have mobile phones. The public sector telecom company in India, BSNL, is the 7th largest telecom company in the world.

What’s incredible is that India added 227 million wireless subscribers in just one year. China only added 119 million subscribers during the same period. That shows how fast India is growing compared to China. It will be the largest telecommunications market by the year 2013. It’s no wonder that there are so many mobile phones in India, and they’re so popular. It’s one of the best markets to sell mobile phones in the world.

The Times of India recently released a list of the top ten mobile phones in India. The HTC Desire, Apple iPhone 4, Samsung Galaxy S, Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini, HTC Legend, Apple iPhone 3GS, Palm Pixi Plus, Samsung Wave, Nokia N8, and Motorola Milestone XT720 made the list.

India has a potential subscriber of 851 million, and it was opened to private businesses in the 1990s to come and sell mobile phones to India’s population. The stiff competition in India has caused all the prices to drop, and mobile telephone calls in India are amongst the cheapest in the world. GSM and CDMA are the two dominant technologies. GSM is more popular though because it took off first. The other, CDMA, only has about 20% of the market.