India adds 1.6 m mobile users in Jan

NEW DELHI: Nearly 1.6 million people signed up for mobile services in India in January, taking the total number of wireless customers in one of the world's fastest growing telecoms markets close to the 30-million mark.

The Cellular Operators Association said in a statement on Thursday 1.37 million users opted for GSM-based services in the past month, taking the total number of users to 23.37 million. The GSM technology standard is widely used around the world.

India's privately-owned CDMA firms said they added 217,236 new mobile customers in January and 154,572 subscribers opted for their fixed-line facilities.

The Association of Basic Telecom Operators said in a statement its seven member companies, had a collective subscriber base of 8.48 million customers at the end of January, up from 8.11 million in December.

Reliance Infocomm Ltd, 45-percent owned by petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries Ltd, had 6.12 million CDMA customers at the end of January.

State-run firms Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, the largest providers of fixed-line services, are not members of the association.

The number of mobile subscribers is expected to cross 100 million by 2005 thanks to some of the world's lowest call rates.

Mobile phones are flying off shelves in India where less than three in a 100 people own a phone compared with more than 20 in China and more than 60 in Europe.

The sector has become a magnet of global handset makers who are soaking up demand from domestic help to chief executives.

More than a dozen firms such as Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd, 28 percent owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, and the Indian mobile unit of Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa conglomerate are battling it out for a larger share of the mobile pie.

© Reuters