Indian Wireless Market

So why are we so excited by mobile phones in India? Why not japan or korea? (ok, those are exciting too, but for different reasons).

First of all, India has a long way to go to eradicate massive poverty. According to the Economist, 77 per cent of India (836 million people) live on less than Rs20 per day (20 rupees is about 50 cents in US dollars) . Furthermore, almost half of India is Illiterate, which is a major factor in the lack of economic mobility.

So with this in mind, it really doesn't come as much of a surprise that there were only 2 PCs for for every hundred people in India, during 2007. And even though broadband access is available for only rs250 per month ($6.20), TRAI reports that there are only 2.46 million broadband connections in India in 2007. This can be compared to the 28.18 million connections in China or 42.17 million connections in the US (as of 2006).

So things look grim. Don't forget that 30% of Indian homes lack electricity, and

Gartner research shows that India is the world's fastest growing wireless market. Currently, there are 180 million mobile subscribers, estimated to grow to more than 460 million connections by 2011.

Fueled by an average economic growth rate of more than 8.5% for the past four years

While the number of PCs will increase, the penetration is likely to be very low for many, many years. What does this mean for India's economic and social development?