Mobile: The Mobility Empire In SAARC

SAARC MOBILE SCENARIO
Country	Mobile Subscribers in Q3 - 2006	Overall Tele-density (in %)	The Positives	Scope of Improvement	Mobile Penetration (estimated at the end of 2006) (in %)
Bangladesh	17,575,234	1	Fastest growing telecom sector in the region. Good rural outreach with innovative schemes	Taxes on handsets and connections can be further lowered. Focus on quality services	5
Bhutan	70,000	10	Heavy investment in telecommunication infrastructure	Invite more private mobile operators and build a robust telecom policy	2
India	125,345,730	18	Over 5 mn mobile subscribers added each month, started manufacturing of mobile handsets	Focus on emerging technologies like wireless and 3G. Lowering ARPUs to push mobile penetration in rural areas	13
Maldives	215,101	18	Fully digital network, free and fair competitive environment	3G rollout for better connectivity across all islands	68
Nepal	615,981	6	Mobile subscribers outnumber fixed line subscribers	More liberalization of telecom sector, room for more competition, improvement of mobile services quality	2
Pakistan	38,996,182	22	Relaxed tax regime, low tariff rates pushed mobile penetration	Service quality can improve further, more localized content on mobile, invite more FDI in telecom	15
Sri Lanka	4,560,581	29.1	First to have 3G rollout in South Asia, ahead in teledensity, healthy competitive environment	Localized content needed, investment in telecom needs to pick up, National Telecom Policy to be implemented	18

Undoubtedly, it is a step in the right direction considering the present mobile subscriber base stands at around 70,000 and nearly 40,000 fixed phones. This is not bad considering the fact that the population of the country is just over 6,00,000.