Ericsson hung up on India

Ericsson is planning a $500 million (£254 million) assault on the fast-growing Indian mobile phone market, it emerged today.

The Swedish telecoms giant said that it wanted to exploit the "phenomenal" growth in the sector - where a new customer is signing up for a handset every second of the day.

Mats Granryd, managing director of Ericsson India, said: "We will be investing $100 million annually for the next five years.

"The figure could up depending on the growth in the sector. This is growing phenomenally and I do not see an end to it."

The huge growth in India has already sparked a gold rush among leading mobile phone companies.

The market has doubled in the past year to 140 million customers - triple the amount of Indian debit or credit card holders - and is growing at a rate of 2.5 million subscribers a month.

Three months ago, Vodafone spent £840 million on a 10 per cent stake in Indian company Bharti Telecom.