The all-India GSM subscriber addition in September wasn't something that could be crowed about. The GSM players could only rake in 56 lakh subscribers during the month, a decrease from 59.54 lakh users the industry roped in during the comparable month of August.
This was mainly due to decline in customer addition by state-owned telecom behemoth Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), which added a paltry 2.02 per cent during the month under review. This is against the 19.77 per cent subscriber addition recorded by the public sector unit in August, according to data compiled by Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI).
BSNL's total GSM subscriber base stood rose to 3.03 crore during the month, as against 2.97 crore recorded in August. The state-owned telecom company's market share among GSM operators declined to 19.77 per cent during September from 20.11 per cent recorded in August.
However, the company maintained its third position among the GSM operators in the country, next only to Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar.
The industry's total subscriber addition was at around 15.33 crore as on September 30, a 3.79 per cent decline from 14.77 crore of prior month.
The leading GSM operator Bharti Airtel's adding 20.6 lakh customer, taking its total subscriber base stood at 4.8 crore during the month. The second rung GSM operator Vodafone Essar added 1.54 lakh users during the month, taking its total subscriber base to 3.56 crore as on September 2007.
Aditya Birla Group firm Idea Cellular with a total subscriber base of 1.8 crore stood at fourth position, with a market share of 12.18 per cent, while Aircel with 80.39 lakh was in fifth position with a market share of 5.24 per cent.
Reliance Telecom did not provide with the numbers during this month. Spice Communications recorded a subscriber base of 34.81 lakh, while state-owned MTNL posted a total user base of 27.72 lakh. |
