NEW DELHI (AFP) – Amidst all the economic gloom, one business is still booming — India’s mobile phones — thanks to the world’s lowest call rates driven by fierce competition among cellular operators, experts say.

And while economists forecast a sharp slowdown in India‘s economic growth, no downturn is seen in the mobile market, which added a record 15.4 million wireless users in January — the biggest monthly growth ever, according to the latest official data.

“India represents a unique mobile market where competition is the highest and the tariffs are the lowest,” T.V. Ramachandran, head of the Cellular Operators Association of India, told AFP.

And it’s not just affluent Indians who are buying phones in the world’s fastest growing cellular market — India outstripped China last April.

Most of the growth has been driven by labourers, maids, drivers and other lowly paid people in cities and increasingly in rural areas as innovative marketing has made phoning cheap enough for some of the poorest pockets.

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