Indian Telecom Hits 1 Billion Mobile Phone Users: What Next?

A milestone, sure; but a stepping stone too.

According to the data recently released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India became the second country to reach the 1 billion mobile phone connections mark (in October, 2015), after China (who hit this mark way back in 2012).

The number of 1 billion mobile phone connections does not mean that there are one billion unique mobile phone users in India, though. Obviously there are people who use more than one mobile phone connection — either to keep their personal and professional lives separate or to simply enjoy benefits from different operators.

This habit of “economising” or choosing operators is also attributed to the large number of telecom providers in India. While most developed countries like United States, and Australia have somewhere between three to six major telecom service providers, India has an unbelievable twelve telecom providers!

Such a large number of telecom providers translates into an extremely competitive marketplace, replete with the cheapest calling and texting rates anywhere in the world.

With this milestone hit, the question of “what next” is an obvious one.

First: Getting smarter phones.

At the moment, only a small proportion of Indian mobile phone users are on smartphones — would you believe only 125 million of the one billion users user contemporary phones?! Thus, the market for smartphones is going to grow for a while. Having already witnessed a boom in 2015, 2016 looks even more promising.
That explains why practically every phone brand in the world is queuing up to enter India.

Second: Mobile Internet

Telecom companies are all jostling to sweep up a lion’s share of the new smart phone users — and are influencing them to use mobile internet on their phone.

Increasing the internet usage of existing users opens up yet another flank in the market.

Telecom companies are already under pressure to create attractive Mobile Data packages, and are getting deeper into the battle with existing internet providers (thus DSL and Broadband providers) each month.

Vocational Platforms

With more and more users switching to smartphones, one also needs to realise that in a country like India, a smartphone often becomes the only source of information, connectivity and internet access for a large proportion of the users (since computers, televisions and landline phones are still a rarity in many parts of India).

And with the proliferation of mobile-based commerce, apps and the rapid growth of the hyperlocal business model, the smartphone also becomes many users’ prime source of vocational income.

Thus, the telecom sector contributes to the GDP of the country with direct and indirect job creation, revenue generation and just by being an enabler.

While the one billion milestone merits adulation and applause, we believe there’s still a long journey ahead, for telecom in India. In fact, it has the potential to change India and it’s destiny, along with those of billions of it’s citizens.

Originally published at Chip-Monks.