GSM subscriber base in the country grew by 9.2 million (excluding Reliance Telecom) in February 2009. According to the latest data released by Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) the total GSM subscriber base in the country rose to 277.16 million in February from 267.54 million in January 2009, a growth of about 3.43 per cent during the month.
India’s largest private telecom operator Bharti Airtel continued to dominate the market as its subscriber base rose to 91.11 million in February. The operator added 2.73 million subscribers to its subscriber base howvever with the entry of operators in the GSM market, the company’s market share declined to 32.88 per cent as compared to 33.04 per cent in the previous month.
Vodafone-Essar added about 2.6 million customers to its total subscriber base witnessing a growth of 4.9 per cent over the trailing month. The company increased its market share marginally to 23.79 per cent as against 23.68 per cent in January this year. The company’s total subscriber base stood just under 66 million during the end of the reporting month.
Meanwhile, the state-owned operators after continually losing market share to the private operators, managed to stablise their market share in February.
The market share of Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), which operates pan-India operations except Delhi and Mumbai, stood at 15.94 per cent in February, while in January, 2009, the company’s market share was 15.95 per cent. The company added about 1.5 million subscribers during the month taking its total subscriber base to 44.18 million.
Despite the launch of its 3G services in the early days of February, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL), which operates in Delhi and Mumbai, added about 80,000 subscribers to its total base taking it to over 4.08 million. In January 2009, MTNL had added over one lakh subscribers to its network.
Meanwhile, AV Birla-promoted Idea Cellular (along with Spice Communications) witnessed a rise of 3.75 per cent in its subscriber base over the preceding month as it added about 1.5 million users during the month to report a total subscriber base of 41.5 million.
