The GSMA said that India will become the second largest mobile broadband market globally within the next four years with 367 million mobile broadband connections by 2016. In doing so, India will overtake the United States, which will account for 337 million mobile broadband connections by 2016, but will still be second to China, which will have reached 639 million mobile broadband connections in the same period.

Since 3G licenses were first awarded to mobile operators in India in September 2010, mobile broadband connectivity has grown steadily. There are now more than 10 million HSPA connections across the country, and this is expected to grow exponentially, by 900 per cent, to more than 100 million connections in 2014. This will make India the largest HSPA market worldwide within the next two years, surpassing China, Japan and the US in the process.

"The mobile industry in India is set for immense growth as Mobile Broadband technologies such as HSPA and LTE start to proliferate, but there is scope for far greater development," said Anne Bouverot, director general of the GSMA. "To take full advantage of this, the Indian government should facilitate the timely release of additional spectrum in a fair and transparent way for all stakeholders. The benefits are clear to see — a 10 percent increase in mobile broadband penetration could contribute as much as $80 billion of revenue across the country's transport, health care and education sectors by 2015."