Revenues from the Indian cellular industry is expected to touch Rs 36,600 crore by 2007 end, according to international research firm Gartner. Revenue from the industry at this stage is Rs 6,900 crore. At the Gartner India Summit 2003, it was stated that data which contributes Rs 360 crore to overall cellular revenue will grow to Rs 6,600 crore by 2007. In a release, Gartner has cautioned service providers against increasing commoditisation of voice services and falling average revenue per user. It points out that operators will eventually move on to billing per second to value-based billing. Gartner’s V-P & research director Geoff Johnson said the future was all about partnership business models. “The operator will not own the customer but will work with third parties to develop content and applications” he said. There can be four cellular operators in each circle, including three private and one government player (the government service provider will be MTNL or BSNL). It is estimated that around 60 per cent of the market is in the pre-paid category.In this context, Gartner India’s principal analyst (Telecom Services and Mobile), Kobita Desai said “One of the biggest stumbling blocks to leveraging data centric services is that knowledge of the customer is key.”
