A BILLBOARD in Bangalore screams 鈥�800 million people鈥�. That鈥檚 how many Indians the mobile phone company Airtel claims to be able to reach. Given that this is nearly 20 times the number of people in the country who actually own a mobile phone, Airtel鈥檚 claim may seem pointless. But the message is clear enough 鈥� India is being connected as never before, and the consequences could be dramatic.
Take Reliance Infocomm, the communications wing of India鈥檚 largest industrial group, Reliance. Starting in 1999, the company has laid 80,000 kilometres of fibre-optic backbone to connect the base stations making up its wireless network. Its wireless services are already available in 1100 cities and towns, and the company says that more than 5000 towns and 400,000 villages will be covered by the end of 2005. In December 2004, Reliance became the first provider in India to have signed up 10 million subscribers.
Though numbers like these have telephone firms drooling, competition is intense and long-distance calls on some Indian networks cost as little as 4.5 US cents a minute, among the cheapest in the world. As a result, mobile phone ownership in India has rocketed from zero to 45 million in less than four years. Users are joining at the rate of 1.5 to 2 million a month. In October 2004, numbers of cellphones outstripped landlines. By 2008, 200 million are expected to have a cellphone.
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Granted, this is still a fraction of India鈥檚 billion-strong population. But mobile phones are no longer just the domain of the rich and privileged, as their practical benefits have attracted Indians of most economic classes 鈥� far more than computers and the internet have. Prakash Sharma, an autorickshaw driver in Delhi, is typical of Indians on a modest income who see owning a mobile phone as a sensible investment. 鈥淚t鈥檚 good for business,鈥� he says. 鈥淐all me and I鈥檒l come and get you from anywhere in the city.鈥�
With handsets costing $50 or more, they are still out of reach of the poorest, but that could soon change. In December, handset maker Nokia announced plans to build a manufacturing plant in India. Some observers say this could slash the price of basic handsets, and make them affordable to people on lower incomes.
Read more about India in our special report
