GSM operators lost 9 mn customers in November: COAI

After adding 1.13 million customers in October, GSM operators lost as many as 9.28 million customers in November, bringing the number of GSM users down to 663.78 million at end-November, according to Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

The top three GSM operators with more than 67 per cent market share — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular —together lost more than 6.74 million subscribers in November, said COAI.

Market leader Bharti Airtel, which has a 27.66 per cent share, lost 2.80 million users, pulling down its customer base to 183.61 million as of November.

Vodafone’s subscriber base, too, dropped by 2.38 million to 150.76 million and Idea lost 1.56 million users in November. Aircel lost 1.46 million users, which brought its user base down to 65.32 million at the end of November 2012. Uninor lost 437,915 users, while Videocon lost 379,787 subscribers in the month.

According to COAI, state-owned BSNL did not add a single subscriber in November and had a 14.64 per cent share in the GSM market with 97.17 million subscribers. MTNL, another state-owned telco, was least affected as it lost only 741 users, taking its user base to 5.12 million.

According to the COAI data, subscriber base dropped the most in category A circles (4.20 million) in November, followed by category B (3.43 million).