BCG: 25 per cent of the next billion mobile users will be Indians

New Delhi: The latest Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report cautions mobile operators of the challenges in reaching these subscribers profitably. It says that would entail radical changes to their products and business models.

Though around 1 in 20 of the first 2 billion mobile subscribers live in India, consulting group BCG says as many as 1 in 4 of the next billion subscribers will be Indians.

According to James Abraham, partner and director in BCG's New Delhi office, and a co-author of the report, ''The next billion will be different from the first two. For the next billion, the mobile phone can change their lives, improving their economic prospects more significantly than any other tool. Understanding this and incorporating it into the revenue model is a must as average revenue per user (ARPU) falls to zero.''

The report titled 'Ringing in the next billion mobile consumers: A roadmap for accelerating telecom growth in India' estimates around 91 million households in India as part of this next billion segment. If categorised by income, this segment would be sandwiched between the poorest of the poor and consumers who have already been targeted by most companies.