GSM telecom operators add 3.5 mn subscribers in June

Videocon, Telenor, Idea lose subscribers, while others including Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel, MTNL continue to add users

With signs of recovery in the market, GSM mobile telecom operators added 3.5 million subscribers in June, after losing 0.22 mn users in April and 0.24 mn in May. The GSM subscriber base rose to 776.97 mn by end-June, said the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

In April, there was a net subscriber loss at Videocon, Telenor and Idea. The other four — Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam — saw additions. In May, all except Videocon added subscribers; the latter lost a little over five million. The company has already sold its spectrum in six telecom circles to Airtel, in a Rs 4,428-crore deal, and its users are shifting to others. With Videocon closing operations, COAI’s data now covers six operators —Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Aircel, Telenor and MTNL, which jointly account for about 70 per cent of mobile market share.

Airtel led the growth among operators, adding 1.4 mn new customers and taking its total mobile  subscriber base to 255.73 mn. Vodafone added 0.7 mn new ones, to increase its base to 199.38 mn. Idea Cellular added 0.69 mn and its base has increased to 176.23 mn. Aircel added 0.67 mn, to 88.93 mn. Telenor added 0.03 mn and state-run MTNL added 8,698 users.

Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices and Bharat Sanchar Nigam operate a mobile telecom network with GSM technology but the COAI data doesn't cover these.

China figures

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in January reported that mobile users have exceeded 1.3 billion by the end of last year, of which 29.6 per cent are 4G users. The population of 4G network users in China surged in 2015. Newly subscribed users increased by 289 million in the period, nearly tripling that of 2014.