Punjab beats metros in GSM subscriber base

With a total GSM subscriber base of 9.255 million (on January 31, 2007)Punjab and Haryana have registered a significant increase in mobile subscribers compared with last year, thus emerging as a lucrative market for telecom players.

While Punjab has witnessed a 62.40 per cent increase in subscriber base compared with last year (January 31, 2006), Haryana witnessed an increase of 98.5 per cent. Having subscriber base of 6.305 million, Punjab has even surpassed metro circles like Chennai(3.380 million) and Kolkata(3.025 million) in terms of subscriber base.

According to the data compiled by Cellular Operators' Association of India(COAI), as of end of January 2007, Punjab has a GSM subscriber base of 63.05 lakh while on January 31, 2006, it was 38.82 lakh. Thus the year-on-year growth rate was 62. 40 per cent.

Further, Telecom giant Bharti (Airtel) has emerged as frontrunner with a subscriber base of 25.33 lakh(on January 31, 2007), followed by Spice 17.92 lakh and Hutch 10.71 lakh. So far state run BSNL is concerned, it has a subscriber base of 9.09 lakhs.

Whereas, as per the data on January 31, 2006, Bharti, has a subscriber base of 15.42 lakh, Spice 13.51 lakh, Hutch 6.06 lakh and BSNL 3.83 lakh subscribers.

Thus it clearly indicates that all the telecom player registered significant growth in last one year. Initially, BSNL subscriber base was dwindled in February 2006 and touched 3.71 lakh, but it gained momentum in later months.

The private telecom companies are upbeat about future growth. Rajiv Jaitly, CEO (Mobility), Airtel, said," There is a tremendous potential in Punjab. Airtel now covers all towns of Punjab and close to 6,400 villages, supported by a distribution reach through 26,000 retail outlets".

He added, " We will continue to invest in building on our state-of-the art network and infrastructure facilities so as to provide World Class services, Network and coverage to our customers across Punjab"

Although, Haryana has high per capita income as compared with Punjab it has low subscriber base but it is increasing at significant rate, as it has witnessed 98.5 per cent increase in subscriber base in comparison to 62.40 per cent of Punjab.

Haryana has a subscriber base of 29.50 lakh as of end of January 31, 2007 whereas it was 14.86 lakh on January 31, 2006.

In Haryana, Idea mobile has a subscriber base of 8.04 lakh (on January 31, 2007).

BSNL 7.66 lakh, Bharti 7.15 lakh, while Aircel 6.65 lakh subscribers.

While Bharti is frontrunner in Punjab, whereas in Haryana it is positioned at No. 3.