India Adds More Mobile Users than Whole UK Market

India added more mobile users in 2006 than there were in the whole of the UK at that time, according to a report released by UK telecoms watchdog Ofcom. The figures, which compare the British telecoms markets to those in developed and developing markets around the world, points out that China, not surprisingly, dominated the world of texting with Chinese users sending a staggering 429 billion text messages during 2006.

As mobile phone usage in the UK generated the lion's share of telecoms revenues - 53% of the total, mobile phones around the world continued to drive growth, Ofcom pointed out. In India for example, where the market doubled to over 150 million customers, the market increased by more than the 70 million customers there were in the UK. Despite this tremendous growth in user numbers, mobile penetration in the subcontinent remains relatively low at 14%.

The findings were part of the research included in the Ofcom International Communications Report which looked at the £873 billion (US$1,787 billion) global television, radio and telecommunications sector in 2006 to analyze growing trends.
Ofcom found that the UK had the highest take-up of digital television and the joint highest digital radio coverage of the dozen countries surveyed for that part of the report. The countries looked at for digital TV were Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Republic of Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Japan, Canada and the United States.

Ofcom also examined the markets in Brazil, Russia, India and China which it described as being in different stages of development. Broadband take-up increased in Britain with over half of all households connected at the end of 2006, putting Britain slightly ahead of the United States for the first time. Internet-based TV or IPTV was most popular in France, with 1.5 million subscribers said Ofcom.