The operations of cellular companies have come under pressure with the monthly subscriber growth flattening out over the last few months.
The situation in the metros is distinctly bearish with the total number of subscribers actually falling 7-8 per cent between July and April.
Data available with the department of telecommunications (DoT) and the operators show that the cellular subscriber-base in the country has grown barely 14,000 users in June from April when it stood at over 913,000.
The number is expected to have gone up to some 935,000 by the end of July.
In the four metros -- Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta and Chennai -- the number of subscribers has fallen progressively from 558,000 in April this year, to 548,000 in May and 522,000 in June.
The number is expected to have further fallen in July.
The sharp fall in the metros is attributed to the massive 'cutting off' of subscribers resorted to by the cellular companies.
This is happening because the operators do not want to retain customers who have not paid their bills over a period of time and are contributing to the huge unpaid bills that the companies are forced to carry on the profit and loss accounts.
In Delhi alone, for instance, the two operators are estimated to have written off some Rs 45 crore last year.
Not surprisingly, the number of cellular subscribers in the country have fallen to 190,000 in June from 216,000 in April.
Delhi operator Airtel dropped the number of its subscribers from 123,000 in April to 105,000 in June, while rival Essar Cellphone scaled it down to 85,000 from over 93,000. The Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai operators have also stagnated on their acquisition of subscribers.
The slowdown in the Indian cellular industry has been on for some months now. Earlier, the drastic slowdown had led to a 120,000 shortfall in the projected user-base as of end-March. As of March 31 this year, the country had only some 880,000 cellphone users against a one-million projection made by cellular operators and handset vendors.
Sources said this the drop -- a whopping 60 per cent since late-1997 -- in monthly growth of cellular phone subscribers was due to a dull market in grip of an industrial slowdown and tax notices being sent to subscribers by the income tax department.
Cellular handset vendors like Ericsson and Motorola have also slashed their market projections between 15 and 30 per cent following sluggish monthly growth in first six months of the year.
Ericsson, for instance, reduced its projections for fresh cellular connections from some 900,000-950,000 to 650,000-700,000 for calendar 1998. This downward revision was forced after the first three-four months of this year saw cellular connections growing at the rate of 25,000-35,000 a month.
Motorola had initially projected activations of some 600,00 this year, which it has pulled down to some 550,000 -- representing a zero growth over the previous year. Other vendors are also similarly downscaling their projections.
