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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnG who wrote (6327)	1/20/2001 5:43:03 PM
From: arun gera	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197035

India Demographics - Buying Power Perspectives JohnG. 1 billion Indians does not imply that a majority will be able to afford a cellphone service in the next two decades. Some statistics. -India has only 35 million phone lines after 100 years of fixed line service. Possible reason for blame - monopoly of public sector (Federal Govt. backed). Till about five years ago, one had to wait for years (1 to 10 years) to get a residential phone line alotted. - 70 million TVs after 40 years of TV Broadcasting. TV is family entertainment. A Must Have. -Only 3 million cell phone subscribers (after 5 years of cell phone availability). Prices per minute started out at 35 cents/minute. The latest MTNL rates are closer to 3 cents/minute. Just a perspective. Starting salaries for college graduates are $75-$300 a month. $15 month is the monthly rental charge paid by a cell phone subscriber. Imagine if your take home monthly income is $3000 a month (a typical starting salary in US) and you have to pay as much as $600/month just for the monthly phone rental. In addition you pay as much as $300-600 a month on the calls. - and less than 1 million internet subscribers (not counting shared accounts in cybercafes) after four years of internet access. Internet charges + local dialup charges are about $2/hr. Again assuming a starting Indian salary of $100 a month,you are talking 50 hours a month of internet time on your whole salary. Arun