Paging Subscription Fails To Connect With Projections

The total number of paging subscribers in the country has belied growth projections with the subscriber base barely crossing the 6.5-lakh mark till October 31, 1997. The latest department of telecommunications (DoT) data on the 12 paging firms operating in 27 cities in India show the total number of subscribers is at 652,131 till October end, 1997.

DSS Mobile Communications, which provides paging services under the brand name Mobilink topped the list with 177,355 subscribers with a 27.2 per cent market share. Industry sources said the company's subscriber base includes around 50,000 customers who received pagers as freebies. Even if this figure is deducted, Mobilink still retains the largest number of subscribers. Easy Call, which operates in 25 cities had the second largest subscriber base with 86,761 customers and a 13.30 per cent market share. Easy Call is followed by RPG with 84,625 subscribers, Microwave Communi-cations with 78,661 subscribers, Max with 70,705 and Modi Page with 65,493 subscribers. Mumbai remained way ahead of all other cities with 1.47 lakh pagers followed by Delhi with 1.04 lakh pagers and Chennai with 71,633 pagers. These metros accounted for nearly 50 per cent of market.

 

Growth figures during the current year is likely to be slow since all the paging companies, which have been vying for a larger share of customers by doling out freebies for the past 9 months, have stopped bundle schemes which did not realise the cost of the pager.

Different paging operators told Business Standard that they intended to improve cash flows and were selling pagers between Rs 3,500 -Rs 4000 with 2-3 months of free subscription.

"We have realised that the price-driven paging market in the country also has a 'need' component. The current steps will help reduce losses and bring in real customers and also improve the cash flow," sources at a leading paging company in Calcutta said. Paging operators also hope the increase in cellular rentals will help people opt for pagers.