Bharti considering exapanding in Africa

Category: Airtel | No Comments | Posted on February 15, 2006

Reuters article quoting from an interview with Sunil Mittal on the sidelines of the 3GSM conference.

Mittal said that Bharti could consider expanding in other emerging markets, notably in Africa. He expects Airtel’s share of net subscriber additions to rise to between 23 and 24% this year from around 22% now.

Mittal said the rapid growth, which has helped his company add over a million subscribers a month, still had a long way to go, probably decades, with mobile penetration still around 8% in the country with more than a billion people.

“It is normally observed that when mobile penetration reaches 20 percent, the market explodes. That’s what we have observed in big cities where growth took off when the 20 percent figure was reached,” said Mittal.

So the party should begin at 200 million and not peak at that landmark as I had always feared. Telecom minister Maran has told the 3GSM conference that India could add up to 8 million new users each month once mobile networks reach all potential rural customers.

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