mhsmith,
Analysis by the consultancy firm Gartner differs from your view of the India mobile sector.
"Gartner estimated more than 5.8 million handsets were sold in the third quarter of 2003 in India where mobile phones are both a business necessity and a fashion statement used by everybody from top CEOs to plumbers and electricians.
A Gartner analyst expects the Indian handset market to expand to between 28-30 million phones in 2004 from an estimated 18.3 million handsets in 2003.
The country's mobile industry, one of the world's fastest growing markets, has more than 21 million GSM customers and over six million CDMA users. The user base is growing at about two million a month and is forecast to cross 100 million by 2005."