— The new members in town are planning a family to take on the existing Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). According to this ET article, on this side of the ring are the Videocon-promoted Data Com, Shyam Telelink, Swan Telecom and S Tel including the unlikely tag team of RComm and Tata Teleservices. The COAI currently comprises of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), Idea and recent additions Spice and Aircel. Any suggestions for the name of the new alliance? CRAI?
— India has crossed 250 million subs with the addition of 8.53 million subs in February. Growth rates given, TRAI states India will become the second largest wireless network in the world after China in April. India currently leads in the monthly additions, while China clocks in 6-7 million subs per month, the States does a mere 2-3 million. With 250.93 million subs at the end of Feb, India will overtake America’s 256 million in April. Realists please note, we still trail behind in tele-density, currently at 25.31%. Not surprisingly, Fixed wireline subscribers decreased from 39.22 million in Jan to 39.18 in Feb.
— Nokia (NYSE: NOK) sales in India grew 36% to 3,684 million euros as compared to 2,713 million euros in 2006. The Indian market, in which Nokia currently controls 70%, contributes second to China in terms of total sales for the Finnish mobile major.
— Bad news for competitor Motorola (NYSE: MOT) which has slipped to third place in market share behind Nokia and Samsung. Apparently as a consequence, the VP for mobile devices, Mohan Kumar, and other senior executives have resigned.
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