Vodafone's Indian arm jewel in its crown

Tops the group in mobile voice usage volumes.

Mobile services giant Vodafone's Indian subsidiary "" Vodafone Essar "" ranks number one across the group's global operations when it comes to mobile voice usage volumes.

Getting into the Indian market has meant that Vodafone has been able to record a massive 41 per cent increase in usage volumes in just one quarter.

For the first quarter ended June 30 in the current financial year, the total voice minutes handled by the Indian network, which Vodafone acquired recently, stood at 26,713 million. This is the highest mobile usage volume recorded by a Vodafone network across all its operations.

The Vodafone group had a total mobile customer base of 200.4 million as on June 30, 2007. Of this, a little over 15 per cent of its users (30.8 million) are in India. These users account for nearly 29 per cent of its total global usage volume of 93,414 million minutes.

Clearly, the addition of Hutch-Essar to Vodafone's kitty "" through a $10.9 billion acquisition earlier this year "" seems to have paid off well for the company.

Prior to the acquisition, Vodafone's total mobile usage volume stood at 65,991 million minutes in the immediate preceding quarter ended March 31, 2007.

While Vodafone's European operations recorded 43,894 million voice minutes, the Indian operation, in comparison, stands out for the usage during the quarter under review. The numbers represent the volume of minutes handled by a network and include incoming, outgoing and roaming calls.

The Vodafone usage data is in conformity with other findings about how Indians have a marked tendency to talk on their phones. The telecom industry has a specific word for it "" tele-propensity "" and industry experts say that barring the US, India has the highest mobile usage volumes in the world.

"Network usage is increasing on a continuous basis due to free incoming and low outgoing call tariffs. We expect this trend to continue. Of course, it puts greater pressure on our networks and we need more spectrum to take care of higher volumes," said TV Ramachandran, director general, Cellular Operators' Association of India.