Bihar adds maximum mobile subscribers in November

The state added 1.21 mn customers; total GSM subscriber base in the country now stands at 749.13 mn

Bihar and Jharkhand circle, where Reliance Communication (RCom) lost its licence to operate last week on 900 Mhz band, added a total of 1.21 million customers in November, highest among all circles added during the period. The circle even clocked a growth of two per cent growth in terms of monthly customer addition in November, as per data released by Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

The rise in subscriber addition indicates customers flocking to other networks such as Airtel and Vodafone as RCom had asked its customers to do so in lieu of its licence expiry on December 12. RCom, one of the early mobile operators in Bihar, had a subscriber base of more than 9 million in the state.

According to the industry body, the GSM telecom operators added a total of 9.7 million customers in November, a rise of 1.3 per cent from October additions. The customer addition had witnessed a growth of 0.9 per cent from September. The total GSM subscriber base in the country now stands at 749.13 million.

The COAI monthly figures do not include subscriber data of RCom, BSNL and Tata Teleservices, who also offer CDMA services.

Idea cellular once again snapped top position in adding maximum customers from Airtel. In October, the Aditya Birla Group firm added 3.38 million customers, up from 2.8 million included by Airtel, the lead operator. Vodafone, the second largest operator after Airtel, took 2.47 million customers into its fold during the month.

RCom was offering mobile services on 2G network on 900 Mhz in Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam, Northeast states. Since it could not win 900 Mhz licence in recent auctions for these states, it started asking its customers to switch to its 3G network in these areas as its license expired on December 12.

Though it continues of offer telecom services in Odisha and some other circles on its 1800 Mhz band and through partnership with Vodafone, in Bihar and West Bengal, it had no band to offer mobile telephony services.

December subscriber figures, due to be released next year, could see more addition for Airtel and Vodafone, as they lured Reliance 2G customers to join their networks this month.