Update 1:
Reliance Communications has released an official statement over deactivation of over 10 million connections.
“Reliance Communications has deactivated the services of around 10 million unprofitable, low-end subscribers at the lowest end of the ARPU range, who had not used their phones for over two months. This is in line with the industry practice and has no impact on customer experience or (the Company’s) revenues. We continue to focus on improving the contribution from profitable minutes on our network.”
Original story
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released its telecom subscription data as on 30 September, 2013 that shows the number of telephone subscribers in India has dipped from 906.18 million at the end of August, 2013 to 899.86 million at the end of September 2013, thereby showing a monthly decline of 0.70%. Total wireless subscriber base decreased from 876.72 million in August 2013 to 870.58 million at the end of September 2013, registering a monthly decline of 0.70%. With this, the overall Teledensity in India declined from 73.60 at the end of August, 2013 to 73.01 at the end of September, 2013.
According to the TRAI figures, subscription in the urban areas has declined from 548.90 million in August, 2013 to 543.18 million at the end of September, 2013. Subscription in rural areas declined from 357.27 million to 356.68 million during the same period. The monthly declining rate of urban and rural subscription is 1.04% and 0.17% respectively. The overall urban Teledensity has slipped from 145.78 to 144.02 and Rural Teledensity decreased from 41.80 to 41.70 in this month.
Wireless subscription in urban areas has slipped from 525.84 million in August 2013 to 520.21 million at the end of September 2013. The wireless subscription in rural areas saw a decline from 350.88 million to 350.37 million during the same period. The urban wireless Teledensity has decreased from 139.65 to 137.93 and rural Teledensity has decreased from 41.05 to 40.96.
Fragmenting the market shares, private operators held about 88.33 percent of the wireless market, while state-run telcos BSNL and MTNL had just 11.67 percent share.
Idea Cellular has emerged as the biggest gainer this month as the operator added 1,207,879 new subscribers. Vodafone stood second with 1,205,818 new users. Airtel and Aircel were at third and fourth positions with additions of 1,164,535 and 642,799 new users.
Reliance Communications (RCom) was the biggest loser as its subscriber base purged about 8%, culling 10.49 million customers in September.
According to the TRAI, requests for mobile number portability have continued to increase. “As per the data reported by the service providers, by the end of September 2013 about 102.49 million subscribers have submitted their requests to different service providers for porting their mobile number. In MNP Zone-I (Northern & Western India) maximum number of requests have been received in Rajasthan (about 10.15 million) followed by Gujarat (about 8.86 million),” says the telecom regulator in a release.
Source: TRAI