Uninor user base hits 25-mn mark

Subscriber base of new telecom company Uninor has crossed 25 million mark by end of May, 2011 and the company became the eighth-largest telecom operator in the country on subcriber base in April.

"Our long-term ambition is to establish ourselves among the top six operators in each of our circles. There is some distance to go till we reach that goal, but we are encouraged by the progress we are making," Sigve Brekke, managing director, Uninor said in a statement.

Based on subscriber base report of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Uninor has taken over its competing companies who got approval along with it and even crossed subcriber base of state-run telecom company MTNL.

The other five operators that lagged behind UNinor in April are CDMA player MTS, GSM operators Videocon, Loop, S Tel and Etisalat DB.

"Total subscription base is now bigger than at least one incumbent in 8 of its 13 commercially operational circles," the company said in a statement.

Sharing its customer base, Uninor disclosed that it had 4 million mobile phone subscriber base in UP East, close to 3 million in  UP West, 2.8 million in Bihar and 2.4 million in West Bengal.

These service area together contributed almost 48% of the total subscription base, the statement said.

The other leading service area for the company are Andhra Pradesh with 2.3 million subscriber base, Maharashtra with 2.19 million and Gujarat accounted for 1.96 million mobile phone customers of the company.

Uninor launched its commercial service in eight telecom circles in December, 2009. With the launch of an additional five circles, the company reached its current commercial footprint of 13 circles in June, 2010.