Bharti Airtel tops active subscriber list

India’s largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel, topped the active subscriber base list, with around 91.8 per cent subscribers on its network active.

According to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), only 70.3 per cent of India’s 752 million mobile subscriber base is active, while the rest are not.

On the heels of Bharti is Idea Cellular, which has 90 per cent active subscribers on its network. The country’s second largest telecom operator, Vodafone, however, scored much less with 76 per cent active subscribers.

Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Limited is at the bottom of the list, with 27 per cent active subscribers in CDMA and 35.6 per cent in GSM. The state-owned telco’s active subscribers are lower than that of new entrants like Videocon, which has clocked 37 per cent, Etisalat with 36 per cent, Uninor with 45 per cent and Sistema Shyam with 49 per cent.

Tata Teleservices clocked 49.7 per cent in GSM and 46.5 per cent in CDMA. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited scored better than its PSU counterpart, with 57 per cent active subscribers on its network.

The circle-wise number of subscribers who have active connections are highest in Jammu & Kashmir with 81.8 per cent, followed by Assam with 79 per cent and Maharashtra with 77.7 per cent. Mumbai ranked the lowest with 58 per cent, indicating a lot of inactive subscribers in the city.