Rivals eat into VSNL's Net share

The Tata-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) has continued losing its internet subscribers even as other top internet service providers (ISPs) including Bharat Sanchar Nigal Ltd, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, Sify and Reliance have registered impressive growth during the last three quarters.

According to the latest data compiled by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, VSNL has lost 9 per cent of its subscribers in the quarter ending June 2005. The company, which was the dominant internet player till a few years ago, had lost 24 per cent of its subscriber base in the quarter ending March 2005.

This dip comes even as the country's internet sector registered over 20 per cent growth annually.

The other ISPs in the top five-BSNL, MTNL, Sify and Reliance- have registered an increase of 9.69 per cent, 9.74 per cent, 4.21 per cent and 15.03 per cent respectively in their subscriber base during the quarter ending June 2005. In the previous quarter ending March, 2005, BSNL had recorded a growth of 9.5 per cent, MTNL at 6.6 per cent, Sify at 5.2 per cent and Reliance at 12 per cent.

The two PSUs-BSNL and MTNL-with a subscriber base of 2.1 million and 1.1 million respectively, continue to be the dominant players with over 53 per cent of the country's internet subscribers.

Chennai-based Sify is the third largest ISP, with a subscriber base of 0.85 million and a market share of 14.36 per cent, followed by VSNL at 10.88 per cent and Reliance at 4.82 per cent.While there are 168 ISPs currently operational in the country, these five ISPs combined account for 83.15 per cent of internet users.

"The trend indicates a considerable growth in the market share of the PSU owned ISPs, and in the last quarter, the PSUs have surpassed the market share of private ISPs to touch 53.09 per cent," Trai said.

Broadband (with a download speed of 256 Kbps or more) continues to make headway and the country has 0.4 million high speed internet subscribers as of June, 05, which is a 118 per cent growth over the previous quarter's figures.

"About Rs 540 crores revenue has been reported by ISPs during the quarter and the average revenue per user per month was Rs 200," Trai added.