|
Mobile sector jobs to grow by 30%: GSM
Sify - India
New Delhi: The number of people employed by the Indian
mobile telephony sector is set to grow by 30 per cent over
the next 12 months. This sector currently provides direct
and indirect employment to over 3.6 million people,
according to a study commissioned by the Global System for
Mobile (GSM) Association.
The study released today at the GSM World Congress being
held at Cannes, France, highlights the economic benefits
from the mobile services industry in India, specifically
examining the impact on GDP, employment and government
revenue.
The `Economic benefits of mobile services in India' report
prepared by researchers at consultancy firm Ovum shows that
by December 2004, there were 47 million mobile subscribers
in India from a population of over 1 billion, with
subscriber numbers growing by 87 per cent in the last 12-15
months.
Ovum concludes that whilst the market is buoyant, additional
investment is needed to ensure that the Government achieves
its own goal of 75 per cent rural coverage by the end of
2006. Currently, less than 30 per cent of the total
population is in range of mobile coverage - and that is
largely restricted to urban areas.
Drawing on its global experience, Ovum highlighted five
areas for the Indian Government to encourage and stimulate
investment to meet these targets. These include measures
that would spur development of a domestic mobile equipment
components industry, reduce industry-specific taxes and
levies to allow quicker growth, move to a technology-neutral
development policy thus removing cross subsidies from mobile
to fixed operators and redefine the revenue base on which
spectrum and license fees are levied to give operators the
flexibility to bundle terminals and services to reduce
market entry costs for users
Tom Phillips, Chief Government & Regulatory Affairs Officer,
GSM Association, said, "The Indian Government has set the
industry some aggressive targets for raising the country's
access to mobile services. By addressing these five policy
areas it has a real opportunity to encourage the future
growth of the mobile services sector."
David Lewin, principal analyst and one of the founders of
Ovum, said, "India generates end-user revenues, which, as a
proportion of GDP, are only just below the levels shown in
the EU, meaning that Indian consumers already spend almost
the same proportion of GDP on mobile services as those in
the EU. This demonstrates the true potential of mobile
services in India if allowed to grow."
However, Ovum reveals that 53 per cent of that GDP is
exported due to the lack of national network equipment and
terminals manufacturing business. "Developing components
manufacturing capability and industry will be critical to
maintaining a greater proportion of the value-add generated
by the mobile services industry in India," the study said. |
|
