India GSM subscribers continue to decline in July 2011
27 Aug 2011
India's GSM user additions continued its declining trend, with the country adding 7.64 million users in July, compared with 8.6 million users in June, as the slowdown in the industry extended its tentacles to the telecom sector.
In June, the GSM operators added 8.6 million users in June, the lowest since the past 31 months, and about a million lower than last month's figures.
The total number of GSM subscribers in the country rose to 606.41 million as on July end, compared with 598.7 million as on June end, according to data released by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the representative body of the GSM service providers.
The market shares of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular fell during the period under review, while the gainers were BSNL, Aircel, Videocon and Loop Mobile.
Bharti Airtel Ltd, the country's largest mobile phone firm by subscribers, retained its leadership position with a 28.15-per cent market share.
The New Delhi-based telecom operator added 1.51 million, taking its total to 170.69 million by July end.
Vodafone-Essar, the third largest firm after Reliance Communications also added 1.49 million subscribers, taking its total to 149.11 million.
The unit of London-listed Vodafone Group's posted a market share of about 23.58 percent as on June, 2011.
The COAI data excludes Reliance Communications' numbers, which straddles across both GSM and CDMA. Tata Teleservices Ltd is another company that offers both GSM and CDMA services.
Aditya Birla group firm Idea Cellular added 1 million users during the month, increasing its total user base to 96.11 million, while GSM operator Aircel added 608,597 customers to take its subscriber base to 58.58 million.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) added 1.77 million users, taking total user base to 90.23 million subscribers.
The state-run telecom firm garnered a 14.88 percent market share, during the month under review.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), another state-run firm, added 28,978 users during the month, taking its total subscriber base to 5.26 million and maintained its market share at 0.87 per cent.
Loop Mobile added 12,624 new users in June, taking its overall subscriber base to 3.16 million, while STel added 183,833 users taking it total to 3.50 million subscribers.
Uninor, the GSM joint venture of Norway's Telenor and India's leading real estate firm Unitech, added 1.05 million users during the month, taking its total subscriber base to 27.38 million users. The company had a market share of around 4.52 percent as on June-end.
| Operator | Total Sub Figures | Market Share |
| Bharti Airtel | 170,696,526 | 28.15 % |
| Vodafone Essar | 143,011,007 | 23.58 % |
| IDEA | 96,111,475 | 15.85 % |
| BSNL | 90,234,162 | 14.88 % |
| Aircel | 58,589,349 | 9.66 % |
| Uninor | 27,388,666 | 4.52 % |
| Videocon | 7,034,876 | 1.16 % |
| MTNL | 5,265,149 | 0.87 % |
| Loop Mobile | 3,162,932 | 0.52 % |
| S-Tel | 3,501,247 | 0.58 % |
| Etisalat | 1,424,554 | 0.23 % |
| All India | 606,419,943 | 100.00 % |
