RCom adds 5 mn subscribers in Jan

Reliance Communications (RCom) has added around 5 million new subscribers in January 2009, with a majority of the additions coming in from its newly launched GSM services.

This is one of the largest subscriber additions by a single company, and is more than half of the 9.3 million subscribers added by the other GSM operators during the month.

“RCom is indeed glad to see such a tremendous response by the Indian telecom consumers, which has been instrumental in redefining the dynamics of the sector and achieving a record new subscriber addition of 5 million. This significant achievement shows that almost one out of every two customers is choosing Reliance Mobile over other options,” RCom President (Personal Business) S P Shukla said.

However, the company did not provide the split of customers added on GSM and CDMA networks.

“On a per month basis, the net additions are quite large. This is definitely the largest net additions per month by any operator in the country. The additions came from the attractive GSM schemes launched by the company,” Suresh A Mahadevan, Head of India Research, UBS Investment Bank said.

When asked whether the company would be able sustain this after the schemes end after a 90-day period, he said: “It depends on what the company intends to do after the scheme expires.”

The other GSM operators, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar and Idea Cellular among others have added around 9.3 million subscribers during the month. BPL Mobile’s subscriber base crossed 2 million during the month.

RCom had launched its GSM services in January 2009 across 14 circles the country, under Reliance Mobile brand. The company had earlier launched GSM services in eight north eastern circles, operated under Reliance Telecom.

The GSM launch was after the company was allocated GSM spectrum earlier last year, and was under ‘crossover’ or ‘dual technology’ mode. RCom now offers pan-India service both on CDMA and GSM.