'GSM will continue to dominate cellular mart'

Despite the surge in the number of CDMA subscribers across the country, the GSM cellular networks will continue dominate the Indian cellular market, said T V Ramachandran, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

However, the third generation phones or 3G phones, which are capable of operating on broadband technologies, will also become popular and will garner a share of the cellular market, as more and more people are now looking to access the Internet at faster speeds while on the move, Ramachandran added.

Ramachandran said that despite the massive growth of cellular phones in the country over the past few years, only 2,000 cities and towns have so far been covered.

"There is still a huge scope for growth of cellular phones in the country and while there has been a near 100 per cent increase in the number of cellular subscribers in the country, between 2000 and 2004, this trend is likely to continue further for next few years," he said.

Ramachandran said that Indian cellular tariffs are definitely the lowest in the world and given this reality, the scope for cellular phone growth is enormous.

Despite the substantial increase in the number CDMA subscribers, the ratio of GSM phones to CDMA phones continues to be 80:20 and there will not be any major shift in this ratio.

Ramachandran said that 3G phones will gain increasing popularity. "Not just in the cellular phone market, the 3G technology has a tremendous scope for growth in the BPO sector, corporate intranet and broadband for rural intranet," Ramachandran felt.