The Hindu Business Line : GSM mobile user base up 62% in 2007

New Delhi, Jan. 9 GSM mobile subscriber base grew 62 per cent in 2007 from 105.4 million in December 2006 to 171.8 million at the end of December 2007.

Mobile operators added 66.4 million new users in 2007 compared with 46.9 million in 2006.

New additions

According to numbers released by the Cellular Operators Association of India, 5.7 million new mobile users were added in December marginally lower than 6.1 million new subscribers in November.

During the month, Bharti Airtel added the highest number of subscribers with 2.2 million new users. The company now has 55 million mobile users across the country.

Vodafone Essar added 1.3 million subscribers taking its total tally to 39.8 million. State owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, hit by delays in procuring telecom equipment, managed to get just over 7.6 lakh new users in December taking its total user base to 32.7 million. Idea Cellular, which is the number four operator, got more number of new users than BSNL with over 8 lakh additions.

Growth areas

In terms of geography, Circle B States have equal number of mobile users as Circle A States with 62.4 million subscribers. Traditionally metros and Circle A States (Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka) have led the mobile growth but with operators moving into new areas, growth in Circle B states (Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal) have been phenomenal over the past few months.

Metros have been relegated to the third spot with just 28 million mobile users indicating saturation levels in these four cities.

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