According to figures released by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), India’s GSM subscriber base now stands at 671.95 million, after major players like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular, which account for 68 percent of the total market, lost roughly 5.1 million subscribers in the month of August, 2012. Taking into account other players, it is estimated that the total GSM subscriber base in India declined by 7.1 million in the same period.
Bharti Airtel, which currently holds a 27.82 percent market share, lost 1.90 million subscribers in August, bringing its total subscriber base to 186.9 million. Idea Cellular lost 1.64 million subscribers in the same period, placing its subscriber base at 115.97 million. Vodafone on the other hand, lost 1.55 million subscribers in the same period, giving it a total subscriber base of 153.35 million.
The other GSM operator to lose subscribers in the month of August was Uninor, which lost a significant 2.38 million subscribers. This brings its total subscriber base to 42.11 million. Aircel and Loop Mobile were the only two GSM operators to have added subscribers in the same period, with Aircel adding 793,717 subscribers, and Loop Mobile adding 79,842 subscribers.
The COAI report did not include detailed data for BSNL and MTNL, but stated that the former held a subscriber base of 94.67 million subscribers in August, while MTNL held a 5.12 million subscriber base.
A recent report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) showed a similar trend when accounting for the total mobile subscriber base in the country. According to TRAI, for India’s telecom subscriber base registered a decline for the first time, with the user base dipping to 944.81 million in July from 965.52 million in June – a negative growth of 2.14 percent. On the mobile number portability front, by the end of July 2012 about 59.31 million subscribers submitted their requests to different service providers.
Source: Indian Express