India will have over hundred million 3G broadband subscribers by 2015

Indian telecom market has been growing at a CAGR of approximately 30% since 1995 and still growing strong. With additions of more than 14 million subscribers per month in the pas years, the wireless subscriber base has grown to 635.51 million in present year, second only to China.However, the recently concluded 3G spectrum and BWA auction saw intense competition among the bidders resulting in a revenue inflow of Rs.1.06 trillion for the government, surpassing most estimates.

In this context, the report examines the potential for Mobile Broadband Services, its impact on the telecom industry and other allied sectors in India.

“The transformative power of mobile broadband lies in its ability to enable greater access to the internet in India. Everyone from telecom industry, Government to other industries will be able to leverage a ubiquitous platform to reach out to a wide range of customers and provide diverse products and services more effectively.”

Key highlights of the report:

1. Mobile Services: Positive Outlook- The mobile subscriber base is projected to cross 1 billion in 2014 driven by high subscriber additions in mostly rural areas.

2. More than one hundred million 3G/HSPA broadband subscribers by 2015 and growing: Given the context of non-scalable wire line infrastructure, broadband in India is expected to be delivered on a wireless platform. Mobile broadband using technologies in the BWA spectrum band, such as TDD LTE, are expected to address enterprises and high net worth individuals; while broadband volumes are likely to be driven on the mobile platform leveraging 3G and HSPA technology.

3G subscriber numbers are projected to cross 107 Mn by 2015. Initially, the uptake of mobile broadband services will almost exclusively be in urban India; however by 2015 rural subscribers are likely to comprise 24 percent of overall 3G subscriber base in 2015.

Introduction of new innovative applications, enhanced user experience, decreasing prices of 3G/HSPA enabled handsets would be key driver for mobile broadband in India.

3 Mobile broadband will be a catalyst for changing business dynamics: In terms of service offerings, currently content is largely restricted to film based entertainment and cricket. High speed access will enable content developers and aggregators to generate additional revenue by offering diverse interactive content including local language content.
Content owners will move beyond operator portals and onto direct services via internet. This will also see advertising driven models, offering benefits to the users, with advertisers partly footing the bill. This will also reflect in increased bargaining power of content developers and aggregators vis-à-vis operators.

New partnerships will emerge; handset vendors will be partnering with content owners and aggregators to embed various applications in their devices to create product differentiation. In addition, mobile operators will be using content /application brands to launch new services.

4 Cascading impact of mobile broadband services: Mobile broadband services will generate incremental revenue of Rs.940 Ban in 2015 Ban for telecom industry as a whole.

5 Financial Services, Media & Entertainment, Agriculture and other allied sectors to benefit from mobile broadband: Financial services sector could effectively leverage the platform to reach out to a large base of unbanked customers across India.

In agriculture, mobile broadband would play a role in integrating rural India with rest of the country and help widen markets, create better information flows, lower transaction costs.