The cellular phone companies using the WLL-CDMA technology will increase their subscriber base by 86.6 per cent in 2004-05 as against the expected growth of 40 per cent in GSM customers, according to a study by Morgan Stanley and the National Association of Software and Service Companies.
The subscriber base of WLL-CDMA will increase from 7.5 million in 2003-04 to 14 million this year, while the mobile service operators using GSM will increase their customers from around 25 million last fiscal to 35 million in 2004-05, the study said.
The WLL-CDMA services will be the fastest growing segment in the Indian telecom sector, which will see a revenue growth of 21.4 per cent in 2004-05 to $12.41 billion from $10.94 billion in 2003-04. This segment will be the only one in telecom that will see an increase in Average Revenue Per User.
The WLL-CDMA operators will witness their revenues increasing to $681.32 million this year from $351.65 million in 2003-04. Revenues of GSM operators will increase 33.3 per cent to $3.07 billion from $2.3 billion in 2003-04, the study said.
The APRU of WLL-CDMA service providers will increase to $49 in 2004-05 from $47 in 2003-04 while for GSM operators this will decline to $87.91 this fiscal from $92.31 in 2003-04.
The next fastest growing segment in telecom this year will be leased lines. While the number of E1 lines will grow 68 per cent in 2004-05, the revenues will grow 26.1 per cent to $472.9 million.
