In the month of July, mobile operators added 5.28 million new subscribers while the fixed line subscriber base declined by 0.06 million. This resulted in a net increase of 5.22 million new telephone subscribers in India in July. With this, the total telephony subscriber base now has touched the 158.59-million mark, compared to 153.37 million in June. The tele-density reached 14.40 by July-end compared to 13.95 at the end of June. By July end, the total fixed line user base stood at 47.36 million and the mobile user base at 111.23 million.

The gross addition of mobile and fixed line subscribers in the first four months of 2006 is 18.77 million compared to 8.88 million during the corresponding period in the previous year. In the first four months of 2006, there was an addition of 18.19 million new subscribers in the mobile segment compared to 7.62 million subscribers in the corresponding period of FY 2005-06. During these four months of this current financial year there was an addition of only 0.58 subscribers in the fixed line telephony compared to 1.26 million during the corresponding period in the previous year.

The mobile value added services (MVAS) industry has reached the level of $105 million (Rs. 500 crore). The MVAS market is expected to grow 10 times to reach $1.05 billion (Rs. 5,000 crore) by 2010. MVAS industry has clocked 100% year-on-year growth for the last two years, and the phase of high growth may continue for next five years. India’s number one private television network STAR commands biggest 25% share of the SMS-based infotainment services, while Sony Entertainment, a venture of U.S.-based Sony Pictures Entertainment in India, Mauj Telecom, India’s leading Telecom solutions company and New Delhi Television (NDTV), India’s largest private producer and broadcaster of news, current affairs and entertainment programs are the other major players in the segment. The value added services are currently providing about 10% of the total revenue of telecom operators.

About 56% of Indian mobile subscribers now own a web-enabled handset, but hardly use it for web browsing. Only 1% of the mobile subscribers having a web-enabled handset actually use it for web browsing. Consumers in India engage in text messaging only and have not yet adopted mobile web browsing. Japan has the highest penetration of web-enabled phones as well as mobile internet usage with 76% people having web-enabled phones. Out of these 76% people, 40% use their handsets to surf the net.

Telecom service providers in India posted revenue of about $19.5 billion (Rs. 879.62 billion) in the financial year 2005-06, a growth of 30% compared to $15 billion (Rs. 675.23 billion) of FY 2004-05. The private sector companies contributed about 85% of the total growth of $4.5 billion (Rs. 201.69 billion) in FY 2005-06, but narrowly missed overtaking the public sector companies i.e. the government owned companies. Public sector companies had revenue of $9.86 (Rs. 443.71 billion) while private sector companies generated revenue of $9.68 billion (Rs. 435.91 billion), missing the target by just $173 million (Rs. 7.80 billion).

With a growth rate of 9%, and revenue of $8.77 billion (Rs. 395 billion), government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) remained the top service provider. Its closest competitor Bharti Airtel brought in $2.6 billion (Rs. 116.63 billion), growing at 46%. Reliance Communication grew at 109% to clock revenue of $2.5 billion (Rs. 112.88 billion) and become India‘s third biggest telecom service provider.

As far as the number of mobile subscribers is concerned, India is now placed at the fifth position on the global list. China with 404 million subscribers, U.S. with 185 million subscribers, Japan with 150 million and Russia with 140 million mobile subscribers are the other countries ahead of India. India recently crossed the 100-million milestone when operators added close to 4.2 million new mobile subscribers in May 2006. Germany, Italy, the U.K. and Brazil are the countries behind India in the top-10 list. In terms of percentage growth rate, India is the fastest growing market, and in terms of absolute numbers, India is the second fastest with 4 million new subscribers being added every month on an average.

More than 15 million handsets have been sold in the last three months, which is more than the number of subscribers added during the period.

India is expected to reach the magic figure of 500 million phone subscribers by 2010 and the target is quite achievable. The current subscribers’ base in the country is 150 million including 100 million mobile phone subscribers. The target for 2007, which has already been announced earlier, is 250 million new phone connections. Mobile phone companies added 4.25 million new subscribers to reach the subscriber base of 101.17 million. On the other hand, the fixed line subscriber base shrunk by 0.11 million to finish at 47.40 million.