Mobile connections in India will grow to 815 million in 2014, accounting for 12 percent worldwide mobile connections.
This figure represents an 8 percent increase from 755 million connections in 2013, according to Gartner, a US-based technology market research firm.
The mobile services market in India will remain almost at the same level as 2013 at $19.2 billion in 2014.
According to Neha Gupta, senior research analyst at Gartner, “the mobile market in India is going through a rough patch, where voice average revenue per user (ARPU) is falling very fast, and the increase in data ARPU is not able to fully compensate for the decline. If the prevailing market conditions do not change in the Indian mobile market, India will account for 12 percent worldwide mobile connections, but just 2 percent of worldwide mobile services revenue.”
Gartner says one of the biggest challenges faced by Indian mobile operators is the growing appetite for over-the-top (OTT) voice services. Explosion in personal connected devices, such as smartphones and tablets, is driving consumer appetite for OTT communication.
“Mobile broadband provides a substantial revenue opportunity in India on the back of low fixed line broadband penetration. Packing and selling mobile broadband in small and affordable chunks is critical to uptake,” Gupta said.
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