India’s 12 wireless operators signed up a record 10.16 million new subscribers in March, bringing the total customer base to 261.09 million.
According to Unstrung, that made India the second largest wireless market in the world, overtaking the U.S. with its 258 million subscribers. China is by far the largest market, with a subscriber base of 574.63 million by the end of March.
India had 165.11 million wireless subscribers a year ago, and in 2007 it ranked as the country with the second largest growth in mobile subscribers after China, according to Light Reading’s report on the fastest growing emerging markets newly published today.
| Ranking | Country | Subscriber Additions in 2007 (in millions) | Total Subscribers Dec 2007 (in millions) | % increase over Dec 2006 | 2006 ranking |
| 1 | China | 86.22 | 547.3 | 18.7 | 2 |
| 2 | India | 84.01 | 233.63 | 56.15 | 1 |
| 3 | Indonesia | 29.31 | 92.94 | 46.06 | 5 |
| 4 | Pakistan | 28.59 | 76.88 | 59.2 | 3 |
| 5 | Brazil | 21.06 | 120.98 | 21.08 | 7 |
| 6 | Russia | 20.95 | 172.87 | 13.79 | 4 |
| 7 | Vietnam | 12.68 | 35.18 | 56.33 | 10 |
| 8 | Bangladesh | 12.61 | 34.37 | 57.95 | 8 |
| 9 | Iran | 12.43 | 28.51 | 77.3 | – |
| 10 | Egypt | 12.06 | 30.07 | 67.02 | – |
| Total | 319.92 | 1372.73 | 25.03 | ||
| Source: National regulator statistics Numbers for Indonesia, Russia, Vietnam, and Iran are based on company data |
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According to Wikipedia:
- India is the fastest-growing telecom market in the world thanks to India’s large population, low telephony penetration levels, and rise in consumer income.
- China has 362 million landline phones [27 per 100 persons] and 565 million [42 per 100 persons] cellular phones (February 2008).
“The scarcity of GPS-enabled handsets in GSM-dominated Europe meant that early Location Based Service deployments there were largely based on Cell-ID location, plus some niche markets addressed by GPS-enabled Bluetooth peripherals,” says industry analyst Jamie Moss.
“High accuracy location based services are becoming increasingly available to all as GPS chipsets are being added to WCDMA devices in Europe and Asia.” ABI Research forecasts that up to 38% of all handsets shipped annually will feature integrated GPS by the end of 2013.
