Cellular(Mobile) Industry

In last decade Indian mobile phone industry has witnessed a dramatic growth. Cheap
mobile handsets, affordable airtime rates, low initial cost and affordable monthly
rentals made it easy for anybody to go mobile. As per latest statistics India has
around 140 million mobile subscribers.

Mobile Phone Technologies

Mobile phone operators are using mainly two basic technologies in India, GSM and
CDMA. GSM stands for Global System for Mobile Communications and it is the most
widely used mobile technology in the world with 2 billion subscribers in 212
countries. Code division multiple access or CDMA is another mobile technology used
in India.

Cellular Network in Metro Cities

Delhi: Four GSM mobile phone service providers in Delhi, Airtel, Hutch, MTNL and
IDEA. Aitel is the leader with 2.6 million connections followed by Hutch with 2.1
million mobile users. In the CDMA segment only two players Reliance and Tata
Indicom in which Reliance is ahead with 19 lakh connections.

Mumbai: In Mumbai Hutch, Airtel and MTNL are the main players in GSM. After the
acquisition of BPL mobile Hutch become the major player in Mumbai with 3.4 million
subscribers followed by MTNL with 1.2 million users. Reliance and Tata Indicom are
the CDMA providers in Mumbai and Reliance leads this segment with 2 million
connections.

Chennai: Aircel, Airtel, Hutch and BSNL are providing GSM service in Chennai. Aircel
is on top with 9.7 lakh connections followed by Airtel with 8.7 lakh subscribers. In
Chennai also Reliance Communications leads the CDMA segment with 6.2 lakh
subscribers followed by Tata Indicom with 2.8 lakhs.

Kolkata: Four GSM operators in Kolkata, Airtel, Hutch, BSNL and Reliable Internet
and Hutch is leading with 1.1 million subscribers followed by Airtel with 8 lakh
subscribers. Reliance leads the CDMA segment with 1 million subscribers and
followed by Tata with 7 lakh users.

Circle A: Five states are in A circle – Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andra Pradesh,

Kanrataka and Tamil Nadu. Main players in this circle are Airtel, Hutch, Aircel, Spice,
BSNL and IDEA with a total subscriber GSM base of 36 million.

Circle B: Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Utar Pradesh (West and East), Rajasthn, Madya
Pradesh, West Bengal including Andaman and Nicobar make up the B circle. Airtel,
Hutch, Idea, Ideal, BSNL, Aircel and Dishnet are the main players with a total GSM
customer base of 35 million.

Circle C: Five sections in Circle C, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, NE and
Jammu & Kashmir. Airtel, Reliance, Escorts, BSNL and Hutch are the main providers
with a total GSM base of 10 million users.
India has around 1 billion GSM users as per Cellular Operators Association of India’s
(COAI) latest statistics and 39 million CDMA users as per Association of Unified
Telecom Service Providers of India’s (AUSPI) statistics. Totally India has around 1.4
billion mobile phone subscribers at the end of 2006.

Cellular Network Providers

Bharati Airtel is the leader with 30 million subscribers followed by Reliance with 28
million users. Hutch, BSNL, Tata Indicom, Idea, Aircel, MTNL and Spice are the other
players. GSM segments leads by Airtel and CDMA by Reliance communications.

Mobile Handsets

In India mobile handset market is flooded with local and branded handsets from
different companies. Major players are Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG and
Motorola.

Mobile Handset Features

Handset Manufacturers are coming up with extra features to attract users like FM
radio, speaker phone, mp3 player, high quality camera with flash, GPRS, mms, java,
games, WAP, calculator, organizers, Indian ring tones, pen drive, blue tooth etc

Mobile Operator Services and Facilities

Cellular operators also providing many exciting features to increase their customer
base like hello tunes, ring tones, mms, GPRS, call forwarding, call waiting, voice
mail, missed all information, call conferencing, contests, free offers, recharge
voucher discounts, life time validity, double voucher validity, favorite numbers, night
talk discounts etc..