Vodafone's Indian unit will spend $2b per year to speed up expansion

New Delhi: Vodafone's Indian arm will spend $2 billion a year as it aims to quickly expand in the world's fastest-growing mobile services market. Arun Sarin Vodafone chief executive officer also states that network expansion and sharing infrastructure such as towers, as availability of cheaper handsets and local calling rates of as low as one US cent a minute lure new users.

India added a record 16.4 million mobile users in July and August, taking the total to more that 200 million, up 63 per cent for a year earlier. The potential for growth is huge as only about 18 per cent of India's more than 1.1 billion people own a mobile phone.

Morgan Stanley estimates Indian telecom operators capital spending to rise 43 per cent in 2007-08 from a year earlier.