Apple CEO Tim Cook said the infrastructure has come quite a ways since it began to put a lot of energy in India, because of the telecom firms’ leadership in building infrastructure.

Taking note of India’s progress in telecom infrastructure, Apple CEO Tim Cook lauded efforts made by the telecom service providers by saying that the country has come “quite a ways” since Apple began to put a lot of energy. Tim Cook attributed this change to the leadership taken by Indian telecom service providers in building infrastructure in the country. Speaking at Apple second quarter earnings call, Tim Cook said, “We’re putting a lot of energy there (in India) and working with the carriers in that market and they’re investing enormously on LTE networks and the infrastructure has come quite a ways since we began to put a lot of energy in there, because of their leadership.”

Tim Cook said that Apple has set a new first-half record in India. Cook noted that India is a “huge market”, and many people will be moving into the middle class over time in the country. Apple has already tied up with various Indian behemoths including Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and others to provide 4G enabled services and bundling data services with free voice call, besides offering cash backs to consumers to bolster sales.

“In India, we set a new first-half record. So, we continue to put great energy there and try to — our objective over time is to go in there with all of our different initiatives from retail and everything else,” Tim Cook said.

Apple will also be upping the ante on its China business. Tim Cook noted that China provides a lot of opportunity both from a market and an app developer point of view. Notably, Apple has almost two million application developers in China that are writing apps for iOS and the App Store.

“They’re doing unbelievably creative work and innovative work. So we look at China holistically, not only as a market. My own personal view of China is that it’s a great market…and feel very bullish on the opportunity and the environment there,” he said.

This story has been updated to correct the reference made to telecom firms’ leadership in building infrastructure in India.