U.S. wireless giant AT&T is reportedly considering a step into the growing India telecommunications market as an MVNO.

According to a report from The Economic Times, AT&T and Virgin Media are both looking to enter the potentially lucrative India market. Citing “top sources in the government,” the report indicated the companies could initially break into the country through mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreements in which they buy airtime and bandwidth for their brand from India’s existing operators.

AT&T declined to comment on the matter.

The news follows March approval from India’s interministerial telecom commission for use of the MVNO model.

Entry into the India market in the first half of 2016 would put any new players in place just in time for a massive spectrum sale planned for the second half of this year. According to the report, over 2,000 MHz of spectrum is expected to be made available in the sale.

The move would also position AT&T to capitalize on expected growth in India’s mobile market.

According to Gartner, mobile connections in India were expected to hit 880 million in 2015, up from 837 million in 2014. Gartner also said spending on mobile services in India was forecast to reach $21.4 billion for the full year 2015 thanks to a rise in cellular services on data-centric devices.

Gartner said sales growth for smartphones in India is forecast to hit 29 percent in 2016 and exhibit double-digit growth over the next two years. That forecast was backed up by International Data Corporation (IDC), which also said smartphone shipments to India are expected to grow at double-digit rates this year despite a wider slowdown across the industry.

IDC said 25.6 million smartphones were shipped to India in the fourth quarter 2015 and 103.6 million were shipped to India during the full year 2015.