Bharti, BPL Alone See Rise In GSM Subscribers In Sep

Bharti Airtel and BPL Mobile are the only two global system for mobile communications (GSM) operators to have added more subscribers in September from the previous month.

While GSM leader Bharti added 2.06 million subscribers in September, up from 2.05 million in August, the BPL customer base increased by 51,475 in September against an addition of only 7,313 in August, according to figures released by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on Wednesday.

After many months, BPL Mobile (Mumbai), which is run by the Essar group, has seen an impressive growth.

Interestingly, the single-centre BPL Mobile, through a group company ShippingStop Dot Com, recently applied for pan-India telecom licences.

BPL Mobile’s subscriber base has been on a decline after Essar sent a notice to Hutch last year to terminate the merger agreement.

The termination notice was sent on the grounds that the approval for the merger of BPL Mobile with Hutch-Essar had not been obtained from the government.

But, Hutch Essar (which is now Vodafone Essar) felt that it had fulfilled the conditions for the purchase of BPL Mobile, and subsequently the issue landed up in court.

Besides Bharti and BPL, all GSM operators have added lesser subscribers from the previous month. Vodafone Essar, the second-largest GSM player, which recently announced its formal brand transition from Hutch, added 1.54 million subscribers in September, against 1.67 million in August.

Among others, Idea Cellular added 0.80 million in September against 0.86 million in August.

Aircel added 0.41 million in September against 0.45 million in August, Spice 84,081 in September against 0.10 million in August, and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) 0.59 million in September against 0.72 million in August.

In terms of percentage growth over the previous month, Aircel is on top of the GSM list with 5.5 per cent, followed by BPL at 4.67 per cent, Vodafone Essar at 4.52 per cent, Idea at 4.48 per cent, Bharti Airtel at 4.4 per cent, Spice at 2.47 per cent, BSNL at 2.02 per cent and MTNL at 1.58 per cent growth.

Bharti Airtel continues to be the largest GSM operator with 48.8 million mobile subscribers and 31.88 per cent market share.

Vodafone Essar is a distant second with 35.6 million subscribers and 23.26 per cent market share, followed by BSNL with 30.3 million subscribers and 19.77 per cent market share, Idea with 18.6 million subscribers and 12.18 per cent market share, Aircel with 8.03 million subscribers and 5.24 per cent market share, Spice with 3.48 million subscribers and 2.27 per cent market share, MTNL with 2.77 million subscribers and 1.81 per cent market share and BPL with 1.15 million subscribers and 0.75 per cent market share.

Meanwhile, Reliance Telecom, which hasn’t reported its subscriber numbers for the past five months, had a subscriber base of 4.34 million and a market share of 2.84 per cent in May.

At the end of September, the GSM subscriber base stood at 153.3 million, an increase of almost 6 million from last month’s figure.

India, the fastest growing country in wireless telephony, crossed the 200-million-mark for mobile subscribers last month.