Cellular rage

New Delhi, April 27: The mobile industry in India has come of age with the number of pre-paid subscribers having dropped by more than 7 per cent in Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai and by 2 to 5 per cent in smaller towns and cities.

The operators are not worried, but pleased with the trend.

Pre-paid subscribers constituted more than 80 per cent of the mobile users and were pegged as major revenue earners for service providers. However, the growth of post-paid subscribers by more than 10 per cent and decline of pre-paid ones by 7 per cent is being viewed by operators as a sign of a maturing mobile market.

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) director-general T. V. Ramchandran said, ?More post-paid subscribers in any mobile phone market is a sign of maturity. This signifies that the Indian mobile market has crossed the line to attain maturity and is now poised for a steady growth.?

?A mature market will always have more post-paid subscribers. Europe is the best example where the proportion of post-paid and pre-paid consumers is about 60:40. Post-paid subscribers do not get churned away and are considered safe revenue providers for the operator,? said Ramachandran.

According to a study unveiled by communications minister Dayanidhi Maran on Tuesday, the proportion of pre-paid subscribers in India registered a decline for the first time since the segment was introduced in 1997. The Indian Cellular Benchmarking Study-2004 has been prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the COAI.

The report also highlighted interesting usage patterns of mobile subscribers.