India data card and USB demand on the increase: IDC

The sales (shipments) of data cards and USB modems crossed the one million
mark (1,002,169 units) in the 12 months ending June 2009, according to the
findings of IDC's 'India Quarterly Data Card and USB Modem Market Review, Q2
CY2009'.

The sharp increase in the demand for data cards/USB modems in the last four
quarters has gone up from 1.76 lakh units in July-September 2008 quarter to 4.05
lakh in April-June 2009. While in the quarter ending July-September 2008 one
data card/USB modem was sold for every four notebook computers, this number
improved to 3.2 data cards/USB modems sold for every four notebook computers in
the April-June 2009 quarter.

One-thirds of the million data cards/USB modems were sold in the first six
months-July 2008-Decemeber 2008-while two-thirds were sold (shipped) in the
second half-January-June 2009. Currently the wireless Internet market is
dominated by CDMA operators in the country. CDMA data card/USB modem shipments
accounted for nearly 69 percent of the total market in Q2 CY2009.

The average sales value (ASV) or price of a data card/USB modem is around Rs
3,000. Going forward, with increasing demand, prices are likely to come down.
This will help improve the overall penetration of wireless Internet/broadband.

Currently data cards/USB modems are available mostly in bundled offerings
from operators. However, with increasing demand, IDC India expects more open
market data cards becoming available, thus providing an opportunity to customers
to choose their favorite service provider along with their preferred device.

Incumbent operators (BSNL and MTNL) are pushing 3G data cards/USB modems to
increase subscribers on their recently launched 3G service networks. Private
telecom operators are yet to launch 3G services in the country.