2008 becomes banner year with 350 million mobile subscribers in India

2008 becomes banner year with 350 million mobile subscribers in India! well yes that’s the scale mobile market is grown to this year and mind you that’s not stopped. Thanks to lower tariffs and falling handset prices and home to a clutch of global operators working with local companies, India had almost 350 million mobile subscribers (including GSM & CDMA) in early 2008.

India’s mobile operators committed to investments of about US$20 billion over a two year period to 2009 to bring over 80 per cent of the population under mobile coverage. The planned investment, announced in April 2007, was 50 percent higher that what had been invested in the 12 year period to 2006.

In anticipation of the huge potential in both mobile penetration and the coverage area of the networks, operators were planning a total capital expenditure of US$10 billion each of fiscal 2008 and 2009. It was generally agreed that significant growth opportunities existed in the rural areas, where penetration remained around 1 per cent while worthwhile growth prospects also remained in the urban areas where penetration was running at 40 percent at the time. Furthermore, it was expected that mobile revenues would be substantial enough to support the huge CAPEX committed to the sector.

The mobile market in India continued its strong growth through 2007 and looked to be carrying a 50 percent annual growth rate into 2008. While the market was initially totally a GSM domain, CDMA technology was introduced as a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) service, which after a long battle with the regulator was eventually accepted as a legal mobile service. The subscriber base has developed into a fairly stable mix of GSM subscribers, (74 percent market share at end-2007) and CDMA subscribers (24 percent). The regulator initially referred to these CDMA service as WLL (Mobile), or WLL (M).

India is also way ahead of US and UK in Mobile advertising Penetration

India is known for its success story pertaining to cellular subscriber growth. And now India is all set to be known for mobile advertising as well.

A new report by US-based mobile social community limbo and GFK Technology reveals that India is way ahead of US and UK markets in terms of penetration of mobile advertising. As per the report, 85 percent of mobile subscribers in India receive mobile advertising as compared to 51 percent in UK and 35 percent in US.

In their latest Mobile Advertising Report, Limbo (mobile social communities in the US) and GFK Technology (market search agency) has revealed that India has led the way for mobile advertising.

Based on second quarter of the current year this Report indicates that 85 percent of mobile users in India are receiving mobile advertisements compared to 51 percent in UK and 35 percent in US.

According to report, 74 percent mobile users in India, 48 percent in the UK and 22 percent in the US received advertisement in text format which is the most common advertising format. Radio also plays an important role in this advertising medium. About 40 percent mobile users in India recalled receiving advertisements on their mobile phones through radio. In UK this percentage was 9 and in US only 3.

The report also shows that younger males typically view mobile Internet advertising the most. According to the report the brands that benefited through this advertising medium were mainly mobile carriers, handset manufacturers, media brands and digital entertainment companies.

“These findings indicate the degree to which the mobile phone is used as a marketing channel, says Colin Strong, head of Mobile Communications Research at GFK Technology.

Jonathon Linner, CEO of Limbo said, “With mobile phone usage growing, it’’s logical for more companies to seek mobile marketing as a tool to reach their segmented targets in this direct and highly interactive medium.”

Courtesy-Telecom Magazine