Rural India's mighty contribution to India's booming Mobile Industry

There’s no doubt that India is one of the fastest growing mobile market in the world. The country currently buzzes with almost 300 million mobile subscribers with over a dozen different operators spread over the country.

However, what’s surprising is the fact that a major portion of the new mobile subscribers being added today come from the rural parts of the country. According to the recent statistical data, mobile carriers are getting more than 30 percent of new users from villages. 

As per the data, of the 25 million new mobile subscribers added during April 2008 to June 2008, 8 million were from the villages, taking the total to 70 million now. This is a substantial increase over last year’s total of 40 million.

Another interesting fact that the statistics tell us is that nearly 75 percent of all the mobile users in the villages use services offered by private telecom operators and not by the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). This could be largely due to the aggressive marketing campaigns undertaken by the operators and the at par rates being offered by them.

Today, most mobile carriers are investing in infrastructure build ups in the sub-metro states, since they show better growth rates compared to the metros. 

According to a recent study by US based Yankee group, 62 percent of all the handsets imported costed less than $50. That’s less than what I pay monthly for my mobile bill.