India to become fastest growing telecom market for Ericsson

With nearly 10 million new phone connections being added every month, India is all set to become the fastest growing market for multinational telecom equipment vendor Ericsson. It is already at par with North America and China, contributing eight per cent of the company's revenues, said Ericsson president and CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg.

Ericsson's forecast comes on the back of Nokia's announcement last year that India had surpassed the US to become the company's second biggest market after China. Nokia is the world's largest cell phone maker.

Ericsson, a leading network provider, adds a base station used by mobile operators for offering wireless services, in India every nine minutes. It is offering services to different service providers, such as Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and BSNL.

The Swdish vendor has a manufacturing facility in Rajasthan.

In the face of the global slowdown, Ericsson embarked upon a major cost cutting exercise which has saved the company 6.5 billion Swedish dollars in 2008. It has further targeted cost savings to the tune of 10 billion Swedish dollars over the next 18 months.

Within the country, Ericsson is pinning hopes on 3G mobile telephony, which has been delayed due to policy differences between various ministries of the Government of India.