THE GOOD AND THE BAD
Short but sweet article in the New York Times today, providing a vivid snapshot of the mobile (cell) phone market in India (image via Samanblog).
Here's some of the good stuff:
"-India has become the fastest-growing cellular market in the world, adding a net 5.9 million cellular subscribers in August, the Cellular Operators Association of India said this week. The gain outstripped China’s increase of 5.19 million subscribers.
-India’s charges per minute are said to be the lowest in the world, as service providers offer deals that include a lifetime of unlimited incoming calls for a one-time fee of 1,000 rupees ($21.75).
-The Finnish cellphone maker Nokia recently introduced a mobile handset model costing the equivalent of $43.50, its lowest price globally for the handset, in partnership with Reliance Communication, one of India’s largest telephone service providers.
-Subscribers are responding to offerings like the Don’t Stop Mobile plan of Tata Teleservices, which includes a handset and unlimited talk time for two years for just over $30."
The dollar figures don't seem too high in the west, but they're still daunting in a country where the per capita income in 2004-5 was $285.
And some of the pragmatic stuff that offers the other side of the story:
"-India currently has more than 123 million mobile phone subscribers, well behind the 430 million in China, and it is not expected to catch up for many years.
-With most of this coverage centered in big cities, providers have yet to venture out to many villages to reach a rural population of 660 million, where supporting infrastructure is so spotty that many villages do not even have electricity."
Good piece overall by Saritha Rai of the NY Times. Recommended.
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