Moving opposite global economic trends, India's demand for mobile telephones is expected to grow at an accelerated rate through 2009, according to a forecast from research specialist iSuppli. The rise in demand will be partly due to the rollout of 3G and WiMAX networks and the implementation of Mobile Number Portability (MNP). The country's mobile telephone demand is expected to rise to 136 million units in 2009, up 23.9 percent from 110 million in 2008. This compares to 16.8 percent growth in 2008. Cellular subscribers in India will increase to 319.9 million by the end of 2008, up 36.9 percent from 233.6 million at the end of 2007. The research firm estimates that India's total wireless subscriber base will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.1 percent over the period of 2007 to 2012, reaching 715 million subscribers by the end of 2012.

According to Abhimanyu Raina, Associate Analyst at iSuppli, "The continued expansion of India’s mobile-handset market is partly due to the declining costs of calls, the availability of inexpensive handsets, increasing geographical coverage and operators’ rising portfolio of Value-Added Services (VAS). In 2009, the rollout of 3G and WiMAX networks and the implementation of MNP are expected to drive the growth of the wireless sector."

iSuppli (www.isuppli.com)