GSM operators add 7.12 million users in Oct

A total 7.12mn subscribers have been added to the GSM operators in October compared with 6.52mn additions in the previous month. GSM subscriber base with this in the country stood at 625.41mn on October 31. According to reports, Bharti Airtel in October added 0.94mn users, taking its total subscriber base to 173.73 million. Vodafone Essar notched up 0.92mn new subscribers during the month. Its subscriber base reached 145.91 million in October. Idea Cellular with 1.63mn new users taking its total subscriber base to 101.81mn is added highest during the month. Aircel added 0.48mn customers to take its subscriber base to 60.28mn. Reports stated that BSNL and MTNL added 0.51mn and 34,919 new users, respectively, taking their subscriber base to 91.58mn and 5.36mn. MTS added 7.95mn customers, taking its total customer base to 14.06million. Reliance Communications has not been included in the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) data, added reports.

HOT! - All India GSM Subscriber Figures

HOT! - All India GSM Subscriber Figures

Monthly GSM Update

Monthly GSM Update

GSM telcos add 14.7mn new subscribers in February

Indian GSM telecom operators added a 14.7mn new subscribers in February, lifting the all-India cellular subscriber base above 555mn, data released by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) showed. With this, the total customers using the GSM mobile service in India have jumped to 555.06mn from 540.37mn in January, COAI said. Bharti Airtel added 3.2mn new users in February as opposed to 3.3mn in January, taking its total subscriber base to 159mn. The market share for Bharti Airtel stood at 28.65% as on February 28.

GSM operators add nearly 15mn new subscribers in Oct

India's GSM telecom operators (excluding RCOM and Tata Tele) added close to 15 million new subscribers in October with the total base crossing the 500mn milestone, data released by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) showed. The telecos offering GSM services saw their base increase by 14.69mn new users last month as against the addition of 12.42mn new users in the previous month, the COAI data showed. With this, the overall GSM subscriber base now stands at 508.73mn versus 494.04mn at the end of September.

Bharti Airtel added the most number of new users in October at 3mn, followed by Vodafone Essar with 2.48mn, according to the COAI data. State-run BSNL and new entrant Uninor added 2.48mn new subscribers in the month under review. Idea Cellular added 1.81mn new users in October while Videocon and Aircel saw their customer base increase by 1mn new users. Bharti Airtel now has the most number of subscribers at 146.29mn followed by Vodafone at 118.04mn. Idea has a total customer base of 76.02mn, and BSNL has more than 75mn customers.

All India GSM Figures

GSM user base swells 13.7mn in January

India's GSM wireless telecom operators added 13.7 million new subscribers in January 2010, taking the overall subscriber base to 394.2 million, data released by industry body COAI showed. Last month’s GSM addition was marginally up from the December 2009 numbers when the GSM operators signed up 13.1 million new users. Bharti Airtel, India's top GSM mobile operator, added 2.85 million new mobile subscribers in January, taking its total to 121.7 million, according to the COAI data. Vodafone Essar signed up 2.74 million new mobile users in January this year, to boost its total to 94.1 million. Idea Cellular along with Spice Communications added 2.27 million new users, taking it to a total 59.88 million. It retains the position as the third largest GSM operator. The state-run BSNL added 2.2 million new users last month taking its total subscriber base to 59.45 million. Aircel added 2 million new users, taking its user base to 33 million and MTNL added a mere 45,067 users taking its users base to 4.6 million. The latest GSM data does not contain the subscriber addition of Tata DoCoMo, the GSM services of Tata Teleservices and the GSM numbers from Reliance Communications (RCOM). Both these companies prefer to release separate data.

Dec. GSM subscriber addition at 12.52mn

The GSM-based cellular service providers have reported subscriber additions of 12.52mn during December, as against addition of 11.09mn in November, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said. With this, the cumulative All India GSM subscriber base has now grown to 379.85mn in November, up from 366.78mn in October, the lobby group for GSM operators said. Among the companies, Vodafone Essar added 2.79mn new users in November, taking its total base to 91.4mn while market leader Bharti Airtel saw its total base rise by 2.85mn to 118.86mn. Idea Cellular added 1.71mn new customers, boosting its subscriber base to 57.61mn, while Aircel increased its base by 1.67mn to 31.02mn. BSNL added 2.03mn new customers, taking its reach to 57.22mn. Loop Mobile added 54,276 new subscribers, taking its total to 2.65mn. MTNL added 57,009 new customers, boosting its total base to 4.57mn. Bharti Airtel continues to be the top GSM operator in the country, with a market share of 31.29% followed by Vodafone Essar at 24.06%, BSNL at 15.06% and Idea at 15.17%.

GSM operators add 11mn new users in Nov

The GSM-based cellular service providers have reported subscriber additions of 11.08mn during November, as against addition of 10.32mn in October, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said. With this, the cumulative All India GSM subscriber base has now grown to 366.78mn in November, up from 355.25mn in October, the lobby group for GSM operators said. Among the companies, Vodafone Essar added 2.78mn new users in November, taking its total base to 88.61mn while market leader Bharti Airtel saw its total base rise by 2.8mn to 116.01mn. Idea Cellular added 2.55mn new customers, boosting its subscriber base to 55.91mn, while Aircel increased its base by 1.61mn to 29.35mn. BSNL added 1.22mn new customers, taking its reach to 55.19mn. Loop Mobile added 50,303 new subscribers, taking its total to 2.6mn. MTNL added 73,019 new customers, boosting its total base to 4.51mn. Bharti Airtel continues to be the top GSM operator in the country, with a market share of 31.63% followed by Vodafone Essar at 24.16%, BSNL at 15.05% and Idea at 15.24%.

GSM user base swells by 9.31mn

The GSM-based cellular service providers added 9.31mn new subscribers in August as against the addition of 9.47mn in June, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said. With this, the cumulative All India GSM subscriber base has now grown to 335.45mn in August (excluding RCOM), up from 325.7mn in July, the lobby group for GSM operators said.

Vodafone Essar added 2.19mn new users in August, taking its total base to 80.87mn while market leader Bharti Airtel saw its total base rise by 2.82mn to 107.99mn. Idea Cellular added 1.54mn new customers, boosting its subscriber base to 50.05mn, while Aircel increased its base by over 1.31mn to 24.42mn. BSNL added 1.36mn new customers, taking its reach to 52.05mn.

Bharti Airtel continues to be the top GSM operator in the country, with a market share of 32.19% followed by Vodafone Essar at 24.11%, BSNL at 15.52% and Idea at 14.92%. The monthly data does not include GSM subscribers of Reliance Communications (RCOM) and Tata Teleservices, who report figures separately. The majority of customers of the two companies use the rival CDMA platform.

GSM subscriber addition at 9.47mn in July: COAI

The GSM-based cellular service providers reported subscriber additions of 9.47mn (excluding the GSM subscribers of RCOM) during July, as against addition of 8.89mn in June, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said. With this, the cumulative All India GSM subscriber base has now grown to 325.7mn in July (excluding RCOM), up from 315.78mn in June, the lobby group for GSM operators said. Among the companies, Vodafone Essar added 2.2mn new users in July, taking its total base to 78.68mn while market leader Bharti Airtel saw its total base rise by 2.8mn to 105.18mn. Idea Cellular added 1.42mn new customers, boosting its subscriber base to 48.51mn, while Aircel increased its base by over 1.3mn to 23.1mn. BSNL added 1.62mn new customers, taking its reach to 5mn. Loop Mobile added 44,897 new subscribers, taking its total to 2.35mn. MTNL added 35,413 new customers, boosting its total base to 4.33mn. Bharti Airtel continues to be the top GSM operator in the country, with a market share of 32.29% followed by Vodafone Essar at 24.16%, BSNL at 15.57% and Idea at 14.9%.

GSM Figures June 2009

GSM Figures June 2009

India GSM Subscriber Figures

India GSM Subscriber Figures

Reliance Communications GSM coming soon

Reliance Communication today said it would launch GSM based nation-wide mobile services by the end of current financial year, to become the only operator offering mobile services on both GSM and CDMA platforms.

"We are aiming to set up nationwide GSM and CDMA network by fiscal end which will cover 23,000 towns and six lakh villages serving 97 per cent of the Indian population," Reliance Communications President S P Shukla said.

The company has been given start up GSM spectrum (radio frequency) to offer wireless services under the dual technology and also CDMA spectrum in the remaining two circles of North East and Assam.

With the focus to enhance the momentum of teledensity growth in rural India, the company has also launched a affordable mobile offering — Gaon Chalo for rural areas.

Reliance Communications would roll out mobile network in another 8,000 towns and 20 million villages over the next six months.

"After bringing down cost of calls, validity and devices in urban India which triggered unprecedented market growth, we will now do the same for the rural population," he said.

The new offer would enable a rural customer to go mobile at Rs 49 which is a 50 per cent discount over the cost to go mobile in the urban areas.

Under the ‘Gaon Chalo' scheme, customers have the option of buying a new pre-paid SIM card with lifetime validity for Rs 249.

Moreover, customers can choose any validity, talk time or tariff proposition on this card.

The company also eyes 50 per cent future growth from semi-urban and rural markets, he added.

Indian GSM Lobby can smile

The department of telecom (DoT) is learnt to have prepared a settlement offer for GSM players, in a bid to resolve the stand-off over the new spectrum allocation norms and end all litigation over the new telecom policy.

According to an internal note of DoT, the seven-point compromise formula involves accepting telecom regulator Trai’s recommendation that existing service providers increase their subscriber base between two to six times before being granted additional spectrum (radio frequencies on which mobile services operate).

This is far less stringent than the Telecom Engineering Centre’s recommendation that the subscriber density should be hiked 4-15 times. DoT has added another sweetener: operators will not be asked to surrender any part of the already-allocated spectrum although the enhanced subscriber density norm would render part of the allocated spectrum excess. However, no fresh spectrum will be allotted until they fulfil the eligibility criteria specified by Trai.

The settlement package also involves operators like Vodafone, Idea and Aircel being awarded 4.4 MHz of spectrum to launch operations in new circles, operators being allowed to offer services on both GSM and CDMA platforms under the same licence, and two new entrants being given licences in each circle to launch services. Besides, it states that auction of 3G spectrum will be conducted within the next 90 days and mobile number portability extended across the country, not just the metros as announced initially.

Currently, Aircel holds licences for 14 circles, Idea for two and Vodafone for six, but they have not been able to launch services as 2G spectrum has not been allocated. The compromise formula, while addressing this issue, also states that the new licence applications of ‘existing GSM’ players will also be approved.

This implies, the applications of Idea Cellular and Spice, which have sought new licences in nine and 20 telecom circles, respectively, will be cleared. Besides, GSM players must drop all objections to the use of cross-over technology, thus paving the way for players like Reliance Communications, HFCL, Shyam and Tatas to launch GSM-based mobile services.

The settlement solution also envisages that two new entrants be granted licences based on spectrum availability. Under the existing policy, licences are awarded on a first-come-first-served basis, and the queue of new entrants is headed by Swiss-based Bycell followed by Swan and Cheetah (both are linked to Reliance Communications), S Tel and Parsvnath Developers.

Significantly, the compromise formula also addresses two key concerns of GSM operators with regard to number portability and auctioning of 3G spectrum. “Mobile number portability (MNP) to be allowed across India and not just the four metros, direction for unlocking CDMA handsets to allow CDMA customers to move to other operators be given, road map for number portability for fixed line also be announced,” states the DoT’s internal note. GSM operators had been demanding that MNP be extended across the country while adding that the same be extended to fixedlines also.

With regard to 3G spectrum, the compromise is that DoT will drop its initial plan to restrict it to just three GSM-based operators with each getting 10 MHz each. “3G auction to be conducted within the next 90 days. The announcement to be made right away—6 licences of 5 MHz each,” the DoT note added.

While 5 MHz will make it impossible for a new player to enter the telecom market as it will require additional start-up spectrum, it will be enough for existing GSM players to migrate to 3G. If the government limits allotment of spectrum to 5 MHz, it will effectively rule out foreign players from 3G spectrum bidding and ensure that foreign players can bid only in theory.

Indian telcos, both CDMA and GSM players, have been bitterly opposed to the entry of foreign players in 3G. They have even written to DoT threatening legal action if new players are allowed to participate in the auction.

Via ET

Hutch gone, Anil dusts up GSM plan

Reliance Communications (RCom) has put the process for expanding its GSM (global systems for mobile communications) services back on the frontburner. The company had halted the process some time back, waiting for the outcome of the Hutchison Essar stake bidding war.

Telecom equipment vendors, including Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, Huawei and ZTE, are believed to have already responded to the Reliance GSM tender for a total of 75 million 2G lines and 25 million 3G lines. The value of the tender is estimated in the range of $6 billion to $7 billion.

Chinese vendor ZTE is already in an agreement with Vodafone to supply ‘budget’ handsets across Vodafone markets, including in India. “RCom is about to start evaluation of the offers for its GSM tender,” an industry source said. Technical aspects of the bids will be evaluated first.

But an industry analyst said RCom may not be able to proceed with the GSM expansion process unless there’s adequate spectrum allocation.

Indications that a group of ministers (GoM) set up to look into vacation of defence spectrum for use in telecom may have a meeting soon to deliberate on the matter.

The GoM is headed by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, who was earlier the defence minister.

Currently, Reliance Communications has over 27 million CDMA users across all the 23 circles in India, while group firm Reliance Telecom has 3.8 million GSM subscribers. Market leader Bharti has 33.7 million mobile subscribers and Hutchison Essar 24.35 million.

Vodafone, which has bought control in Hutchison Essar, said it is targeting a 20-25% market share, or 125 million users, in the next four to five years.

The total GSM base in the country is currently 110.5 million, and CDMA 45.8 million (including fixed wireless).

While the total telecom base (fixed and mobile) in the country was over 196 million as of January 31, 2007, it’s expected to cross 200 million by the end of this month.

GSM subscriber base tops 100mn mark

The total GSM-based subscriber base in India crossed the 100mn mark in November, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) announced. GSM service providers have set a new record by adding 5mn new users in November. This is even higher than the 4.7mn subscribers added in October. India has now joined the super-elite club of countries having more than 100mn GSM subscribers well ahead of expectations. In terms of the GSM subscriber base, India is now placed third after China and Russia.

Rank	Country	GSM subscriber base in Million (Nov’06)
1	China	401.7
2	Russia	152.2
3	India	100.7

T.V. Ramachandran, Director General of COAI stated that GSM technology has been the primary engine of growth in telecom in India and will continue to be the major contributor to the growth in teledensity in the coming years as well. He also said that the sharp spurt in overall mobile growth has been due to forward looking policies of the Government and enabling regulations.

Hutchison Essar Ltd., the joint venture between the Essar Group and Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd., said it added a record one million subscribers in November as the company expanded its service across the nation. The New Delhi-based company's number of users rose to 23.3mn last month. The company gained users as call rates for cellular phones fell by between 5% and 7% in the past year. Bharti Airtel added 1.65mn new users, taking its total to 30.26mn.

Company wise market share in November 2006

Name of company	Total Sub Figures	% Market Share
Bharti Airtel	30262269	30.03%
BSNL	22975201	22.80%
Hutchison Essar	22274580	22.10%
IDEA	11841154	11.75%
Aircel	4237834	4.20%
Reliance Telecom	3409792	3.38%
MTNL	2375026	2.36%
Spice	2357493	2.34%
BPL	1052699	1.04%
All India	100786048	100.00%