India, China "Showdown", who will come up tops?

India's Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran said that the nation's tremendous growth has made it now the third-largest wireless market by users.

India has overtaken Russia in rankings and is currently just behind China and the U.S. The South Asian nation is expected to reach 250 million wireless users by the year end and 500 million subscribers by 2010.

India's largest wireless operator, Bharti Airtel, Idea ellular and other mobile-phone operators in the country added about 4.9 million new users last month on their GSM networks. The nation ended February with 115.3 million GSM users, the Cellular
Operators Association of India said.

Reliance Communications last month followed its bigger rival Bharti Airtel in cutting rentals and rates on roaming services, as phone companies in India, the fastest-growing mobile market, and aim to narrow the gap with China by making phone services more affordable.

On March 2, the Ministry of Information Industry announced that the number of mobile subscribers in China, the world's biggest wireless market by users, increased to 467.4 million at the end of January.

China and India both look like they are in the race to topple "Top Gun" U.S to dominate the global wireless market in term of rankings. With India's phone companies slashing prices on rentals and roaming rates, is the South East Asian power looking to be more than third or will China step up and counter Indian tactics? Your thoughts.