For the first time, an India – Bharti-Airtel’s founder and Chairman, Sunil Mittal was inducted on the board of 3G Association. Sunil stepped up to host the 3G Association conference in India @ New Delhi.
Some of the key highlights from the meet are as follows.
- Their are 2 Billion GSM users in the World. GSM Telcom operators took little over 12 years to achieve the first Billion subscriptions mark, while the second billion was achieved in mere 2 and half years span.
- China is the worlds single largest GSM Market with 370 million users. Russia comes second at 143 million and India growing at more than 35% YoY, ranks third with 83 million GSM subscribers.
- Dayanidhi Maran told that India has the highest GSM mobile growth rate and cheapest call rates. Sure it does 🙂 Maran called for cheaper international roaming rates, which the operators have to look upon now.
- Maran argued that spectrum was scarce & favoured charging fees for 3G licenses, while Bharti’s Sunil Mittal was not in favour of any additional fees for 3G services and quoted how our neighbors, Pakistan & Bangladesh have migrated to superior 3G networks.
