500 million phone users by 2010: Maran

Chennai, Feb 1 (UNI) Union Minister for Communications and Technology Dayanidhi Maran today said there would be 500 million phone users in India by 2010.

Speaking at the India-Sweden Business Forum, he said there would be about 250 million phone subscribers by this December and this was expected to touch 500 million by 2010.

''India's telecommunications industry is on an upward trajectory.

We have already crossed the 185 million subscriber mark and by March 2007, India will have 200 million phone subscribers,'' the minister said.

''Our mobile subscriber base is increasing phenomenally each year, adding almost six million new subscribers a month, which means one customer is added every second,'' Mr Maran said.

He pointed out that major mobile manufacturers had already established their manufacturing units in Tamil Nadu to meet the demand.

Mr Maran said, ''This year we already had investments of 17 billion dollar in IT and telecom of which 1.5 billion dollars have been in telecom alone.'' The Minister maintained there would be about 10 million broad band users by 2010.

UNI