NEW DELHI - India will continue its robust telecom story with the sector's revenue to be more than $30 billion by 2013, according to a global information technology research and advisory firm.

"Total mobile services revenue in India is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.5 percent during 2009-2013 to exceed $30 billion, the US-based Gartner Inc said in a statement Thursday.

According to Gartner, the telecom subscriber base is expected to cross 770 million connections by 2013, growing at a CAGR of 14.3 percent from 452 million in 2009.

"The Indian mobile industry has now moved out of its hyper growth mode, but it will continue to grow at double-digit rates for next three years as operators focus on rural parts of the country, said Madhusudan Gupta, senior research analyst at Gartner.

"Growth will also be triggered by increased adoption of value-added services, which are relevant to both rural and urban markets, Gupta added.

Mobile market penetration is projected to increase from 38.7 percent in 2009 to 63.5 percent in 2013, Gartner said, and attributed it to three factors: increased focus on the rural market, entry of consumer durable and electronic companies into the mobile handset segment, and cheaper handsets.

The number of people with prepaid connections, who accounted for 93 percent of the subscriber base in 2008, will continue to swell to exceed 96 percent by 2013, surpassing 740 million.

The postpaid subscriber base will exceed 29 million subscribers by 2013, growing 2.5 percent from 2008, Gartner said.

It also predicted the churn rate - the rate at which a subscriber switches from one operator to another - to cross 59 percent in 2013 from 53 percent currently.