AT&T, the largest US telecoms company, is targeting India as it seeks to expand its consumer mobile phone operations outside America for the first time since consolidating its grip on the domestic market.
"We are looking at India because it has very attractive growth opportunities," Ralph de la Vega, chief executive of AT&T's mobile business, told the Financial Times.
Mr de la Vega said that AT&T sees "lots of headroom" in the US wireless market, where about 85 per cent of the population owns a mobile, although some analysts predict slowing growth in 2008 and beyond.
He added that AT&T was keen to expand overseas, particularly in emerging markets such as India and the Middle East. Last December, AT&T lost out to Vodafone, the UK mobile group, in the auction for a wireless operating licence in Qatar.
AT&T has applied for a mobile licence in India in partnership with Mahindra Telecommunications, a local telecoms company, and Mr de la Vega said it was hoping to acquire spectrum for its wireless services.
"You need a licence, spectrum and a partnership and we are looking at these," he added.
AT&T's joint venture with Mahindra, established in 2006, has so far been focused on serving companies rather than the consumer.
However, India is the world's fastest growing mobile market, with operators adding 8m new customers each month, and the New Delhi government is targeting 500m subscribers by 2010. Currently, only 23 per cent of the population owns a mobile.
Last year, Vodafone, the world's largest mobile operator by revenue, entered the Indian market by buying a controlling stake in Hutchison Essar, the country's fourth largest wireless business, in a $10.9bn deal.
AT&T already has extensive overseas operations supporting multinational companies, but until now has focused its consumer operations on the domestic market. Last year AT&T emerged as the largest US telecoms company after a series of acquisitions culminating in the $68bn BellSouth deal.
"The new AT&T is looking for international opportunities to complement what is already an excellent enterprise portfolio across the globe," said Mr de la Vega, adding that overseas expansion was one of the priorities of Randall Stephenson, who became AT&T's chief executive last year.
