subject: Growth Projections Of Mobile Phone Industry [print this page] The basic concept of cell phones began in 1947, when researchers looked at mobile car phones and realized that by using small cells with frequency reuse, they could increase the traffic capacity of mobile phones substantially. However, at that time, the technology to do so was not available. Then Martin Cooper, a former general manager for the systems division at Motorola, considered the inventor of the first modern portable handset, introduced a portable mobile phone. Bell Laboratories introduced the idea of cell phone communications in 1947 with the police car technology. However, Motorola was the first to incorporate the technology into a portable device that was designed for use outside an automobile and in 1979 the first commercial cell phone system began its operation in Tokyo.
The telecom industry plays an important role in the world economy and global revenues. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors will ship a total of 982 million Smartphone by the end of 2015.
India saw the introduction of mobile phones in 1995 as Kolkata became the first metro with a cell phone network and India today is one of the biggest cell phone markets of the world. The large growth in mobile subscribers in India has attracted foreign companies to invest in mobile services in the country. The number of cell phone subscribers has been growing from year to year and it is making explosive growth.
The Indian telecom industry has witnessed a significant upswing and is presently on a high speed growth path, enjoying a growth rate of nearly 45 % p.a. which is among the highest in the World. India currently has nearly 550 million telecom subscribers, which translates to a tele-density of 46%. According to Business Monitor International, India is currently adding 8-10 million mobile subscribers every month. It is estimated that by the end of 2012, around half the country's population will own a mobile phone. This would mean 612 million mobile subscribers, accounting for a tele-density of around 51%.
The telecom industry may be one bright spot in a troubled world economy. Demand from consumers and businesses for wireless service is reportedly fuelling that industry revenue growth. Geographically, Asia and other emerging markets will boost wireless revenues by 64%, while wire line revenues are expected to show only modest growth. Most of the growth in both the wireless and wire line sectors is expected to come from broadband services, with wireless 3G and 4G broadband services forecast to grow at a compounded rate of 24% from 2012 to 2017. Over the same period, wire line broadband services are predicted to grow at a compounded rate of 13%. India and China are the fastest growing countries, adding 75 million subscribers quarterly and now account for 27% of global subscriptions.
Fran Caulfield, Research Director for Insight Research had said Despite global economic uncertainty, the telecommunications industry is showing strong revenue growth, which is being driven by consumer Internet usage and business mobility solutions. These are enabling new applications.
