June 17, 2005
Indians more prolific mobile users than Chinese
China might have an overall lead over India in telecom, but Indians are more liberal in usage of their mobile phones, reports The Asia Times.
"According to a comparative study by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) of the telecom market in China and India, Indians use their GSM mobiles for 330 minutes as against 297 minutes in China.
The usage of mobile phones is higher in India because of much lower tariffs due to fierce competition.
While the competition may favor users in India, the conditions under which Chinese companies operate are much better.
This is one of the reasons that China has 674.5 million subscribers (325.4 million fixed line and 349.10 mobile) as against 98.12 million in India (45.91 million fixed line and 52.21 million mobile).
Revenues of the Chinese telecom market amounted to US$65.3 billion in 2004 while in 2004-05 the Indian market clocked revenues of US$17.78 billion.
The operating expenditure per subscriber in China was lower than in India mainly because companies in India have to pay higher salaries, spend huge amounts on advertising and pay a host of taxes and levies.
In China, license fees, including contributions to the Universal Service Obligation fund, are almost nil, while in India such fees can constitute 15% of bills. Also, companies in China pay 0.5% spectrum charges, compared to 2.0 to 6.0% in India".
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