Cellphones outstrip traditional landlines in India
Pakistan Times Business & Commerce Desk

NEW DELHI (India): Mobile phone users have outstripped traditional landline connections in India, the government announced on Monday.

Some 44.5 million Indians now use mobile handsets, compared with the 43.9 million existing landline users, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said in a statement.

"And thus the number of mobile subscribers has now crossed fixed telephony subscribers in the country," the regulator said, following the addition of 1.2 million cellular telephone users since April.

According to US-based investment bank Morgan Stanley, India's mobile market is expected to grow at a compound average rate of 40 percent until 2007.

India has also emerged as the second-largest market after China for cellphone handsets. Mobile phonemakers such as Nokia, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, South Korea's LG and Philips are racing to offer newer models to keep pace with demand.

An industry survey predicts that at least 110 million new mobile phone subscribers will be added during the next three years in India, where call rates are slashed frequently because of cut-throat competition between rival service providers.●