New Delhi, Feb. 4: Euroset, Russia’s largest mobile handset retailer, will open its first outlet in India by the end of this month.

The $2.5-billion company plans to set up 5,500 retail outlets across the country in the next two years, the company officials said.

Real estate developer Ansal API could become Euroset’s Indian partner for its debut in the country, said sources. An Ansal spokesperson confirmed being in talks with Euroset, though he added that “no concrete plans have been finalised yet”.

With mobile retail sales in Russia falling by over 14 per cent last year to 29.3 million units, Euroset plans to enter emerging telecom markets in India, Pakistan, Turkey, Hungary, Cyprus and Romania, said industry experts.

The company’s strategy for the next few years does not entail aggressive chain expansion in Russia, company officials said, adding that Euroset planned to increase the efficiency of existing outlets.

Being Russia’s leading dealer for mobile network operators, Euroset also plans to offer Wi-Fi broadband wireless internet access, web hosting and some financial services.

The company also retails non-mobile handset products such as digital cameras, CDs and MP3 players.

Euroset operates a network of over 5,000 outlets in Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

The mobile retailer, known for offering products at cheap prices, provides consumer loans to enable purchase of handsets in smaller cities of Russia.

“This is one of Euronet’s key expansion strategies, which other retailers can emulate to get a bigger pie of the largely untapped rural telephony market in India,” said industry experts.

India’s mobile retail market, including handset, airtime and accessories, is a Rs 75,000-crore business, growing at over 20 per cent year.

With the mobile handset retailing market in India on the growth path, players like RPG, Spice Telecom, Essar, and Pantaloon’s ConvergeM and MBazaar are getting into the expansion mode with plans to open exclusive mobile concept stores in the country.