India To Be 2nd Largest Mobile Broadband Market By 2016

In a recent study by GSMA, India features quite high up on the mobile broadband listing.
In fact the same study actually pitches the country in the
second place in its prediction for the
world’s largest mobile broadband markets,
and adds that it will be within the next four years that India will boast of having 367 million mobile connections.
India will soon push ahead of USA and Japan and will be second only to China,
which would have reached about 639 million connections by 2016,
which is when India would reach its expected 367 million mark.
As per their research, there has been a steady growth in the number of broadband connections,
since 3G licenses were dished out back in September 2010.
India has more than 10 million HSPA connections,
which is expected to increase by a staggering
900 percent to more than 100 million connections by the year 2014.

Additional spectrum is required for India to maintain a steady momentum and adequate,

 but affordable broadband connection is needed to 

ensure long term economic and social growth. 

As per a recent study by the GSMA’s Wireless 

Intelligence service, even though India has an expansive rural population, 

the mobile growth in India is mainly 

due to the more affluent set of communities in the urban areas.

“Net additions in urban areas reached 85 million last year compared to 

57 million in rural areas, with mobile

penetration increasing by 20 percentage points in urban 

areas to 161 per cent, against a 6.5 percentage point rise in rural areas to 36.6 per cent.”

Providing cheap and affordable mobile broadband connection in 

the rural areas of India would help bridge the so called ‘Digital- Divide’. 

This in turn would help the economic and social problems in India by providing 

faster communication and correspondence, regarding simple matters.

“It is important that all citizens in India have access to 

high-speed Internet connectivity and the transformative opportunities it provides, 

 the current average cost of an LTE device is prohibitive for the uptake of 

Mobile Broadband for those on low incomes. 

The GSMA is committed to working with its mobile operator members to investigate innovative ways in which to make access to the mobile Internet more affordable for all,”

Anne Bouverot also had some announcements 

regarding the opening of a permanent office in New Delhi and two new members, 

Sandeep Karanwal, Head of GSMA’s India office, 

and Nitin Sapra, the GSMA’s Manager for spectrum and regulation policy in India. 

She said that, “It is an exciting time to launch our new office, 

as India is an increasingly critical market for the mobile industry,

 both commercially and in policy terms,

 through its influence throughout Asia Pacific and the world.” 

GSMA i.e. the GSM Association was formed back in 1995, 

in order to monitor the interest of all GSM service providers across the globe. 

Its main function is to standardize, deploy and promote the GSM mobile system.