10 years of Mobiles

Category: General | No Comments | Posted on August 22, 2005

Times of India is carrying a story on the 10th anniversary of introduction of Mobiles in India.

Not so long ago, owning a phone was a luxury. Things have changed drastically. Says Bharti CMD Sunil Mittal:

“There is nothing more moving than seeing a carpenter talking business on his mobile, or a fisherman trying to sell his catch, or a farmer keeping track of market information using his cellphone.”

The mood in the sector continues to be upbeat. Says COAI DG TV Ramachandran:

“In April, India had the seventh largest mobile subscriber base in the world. By December 2007, when we hope to have 200 million cellphones users, India will be number three or four, after China, US and, perhaps, Russia. We hope to go past UK, Italy and Germany.”

To put things into perspective, telephone penetration has increased to around 11% in 2005 from a measly 0.8% in 1995. Still there is a long way to go, since cellular networks cover just about 25% of the population.

“About 35% of our costs goes to government in various levies. To make mobile telephony more affordable, these levies have to be rationalised,”he says.

Comments