GSMA Says India’s Teledensity Mere 26%, Global Players Not Excited to Invest Here

India’s telecom bubble is once again pricked, as GSM Association reported that actual mobile teledensity is around 26% in India...

This report comes in a moment when India’s Telecom Regulatory Authority claims that teledensity reached 74.21 % of total population. As per TRAI data of October 2012, 703.92 million active customers are in India out of total 904.32 million connections. India comes second to China in terms of mobile connections.

GSMA DM Anne Bouverot says that the research done by GSMA is more accurate, as it calculates the multi-SIM environment in the study. The report says on average every mobile users in India has 2.2 SIM, compared to worldwide average SIM per person is 1.85. It also mentions that Indians are very price conscious and check out for best offers and promotions which lead to more SIM per person.

GSMA has also reported that India is loosing its attraction as a destination for global telecom players to invest due to factors like regulatory issues and extreme competition in the market presented with more than 10 players. All operators are in a cash crisis, and at the same time regulatory issues hit them.

Anne said that now Indian operators are also looking to expand their footprints in other countries. Anne gave example of Burma which is being explored by the operators.