* The revenues from data services will significantly contribute to the growth of overall cellular services revenue in India, with a CAGR of 26.3 percent in the forecast period.
* Prepaid subscribers are expected to adopt data services faster than the post-paid segment. Data revenues for the prepaid segment are projected to grow at 29 percent CAGR during the forecast period as compared to 22 percent CAGR for the post paid subscribers during the same period.
* The bulk of the revenues will continue to come from voice revenues. However, with the increased growth in data services, the percentage of revenues coming from voice will reduce from 89 percent in 2007 to 85 percent in 2012.

Expected changes in Indian telecom landscape

According to Gartner, the industry will witness several changes in the coming year that could revolutionize the face of the telecom industry with the introduction of new technologies such as WiMAX, 3G and Mobile Number Portability (MNP). India will move to its next phase of evolution with the commercial launch of WiMAX by 1Q09 and 3G by 2Q09. With the introduction of MNP in 2008, churn rates are not expected to rise significantly, as India continues to be a prepaid dominated market.

"The Indian wireless market is a vibrant, price-sensitive and high-growth market," Gupta said. "With 14 telecom service operators already present and another two set to join, the Indian telecom industry is expected to see some level of M&A activity in 2009. Given the high level of competition and anticipated consolidation, different business models will emerge that could push tariffs further down, with Indian mobile service consumers set to emerge as the biggest beneficiaries."