The Hindu Business Line : Mobile beeps growing louder than fixed lines

MOBILE subscriber base has overtaken the fixed line telephone user base in at least 10 States. This includes all the four metros, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat.

Number of mobile users in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh (West) has also crossed the fixed line user base.

While mobile subscription has been growing at an average of 1.5 million users every month across the country, fixed line usage has dipped. And with steep tariff cuts announced by mobile operators recently, the cellular population, which is at 40 million, is expected to overtake the 42 million fixed line telephone base across the country in the next few months.

In States such as Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, the mobile subscribers have already overtaken the fixed line users in urban pockets.

In Haryana, the gap is only 3 lakh while in Himachal Pradesh, fixed line subscribers are ahead only by 2 lakh.

In Maharashtra, a hotspot for mobile usage, the gap between fixed and cellular users is now reduced to just 4 lakh. These States are expected to join the club of 10 in the next two months.

While the mobile users in the metro cities of Delhi and Mumbai had overtaken the fixed line subscribers some time ago, States such as Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh are new to the club.

Telecom analysts pointed out that since most circles have more than five mobile operators on an average compared to one fixed line service provider, wireless communication was bound to grow.

Even basic service providers such as Reliance and Tata Teleservices are rolling out wireless networks following unification of licence.

The world over, telecom is becoming wireless. According to the US-based research group, Yankees, the number of mobile subscribers in the world will overtake the number of wireline phones by 2006.

India is all set to beat that with just 2 million more mobile telephone users needed to overtake its 42-million fixed-line users.

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