India has beat it’s government target of 500 million before end of 2010. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said recently that the number of Indian mobile phone users will cross the 650 million mark by 2012.

India is now on a par with China and only the second nation in the world to achieve half a billion mobile phone subscribers – with nearly 15 million new customers being added every month.

Officials say that overall “tele-density” in the country has reached 43.5% – or 509 million subscribers.

But some areas such tiny remote north-eastern Indian state of Mizoram has now more than half the population is now using a mobile telephone.

The Mizoram state economic survey in January 2010 indicated there were 561,917 mobile phone users in the state – which has a population of about one million people – and the figures might have gone up since then. The survey said that Mizoram’s mobile phone users currently pay a total monthly bill of 50 million rupees ($1m).

All Indian mobile networks are doing roaring business in the state, where the government is the biggest employer.

Airtel is the largest network in Mizoram, with 192,000 subscribers in January 2010, followed by BSNL, Aircel, and Vodafone.

Officials say that the figures are remarkable because the state is one of the most remote in India and private industry is practically non-existent.

This seems to be the model that is replicated not only across India but also in Africa.

What does this mean for us in the mobile industry ? Basically that these people who often don’t have internet connections are going to be hungry for content. Not necessarily premium content for sure but they will want the same sort of services as others have world wide namely : search, social and info.

This represents a huge opportunity and also challenge for the present web and mobile players to offer to these new entrants what they want and to monetize all of this.. To be watched therefore.

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