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BANGALORE, Aug 29

HUTCHISON Whampoa has opened its account in Karnataka with 12,661 subscribers in the first month of its operations. Hutchison is the fourth cellular licensee in the State, according to figures released by the Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI).

The company began operations in July under the brand name Hutch. The other licensees in the Karnataka are Bharti Mobile, Spice Communications and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL). For July, both Bharti and Spice had a subscriber base of 2.75 and 1.91 lakh each. The third operator, BSNL, has not yet kicked off its operations in the Karnataka circle. Current indications are that BSNL is likely to begin operations only next month.

However, what is encouraging is the growth rate in the cellular mobile communications. Between June and July this year, the sequential growth rate of mobile communications was over 7 per cent. This is against the May- June figure of less than five per cent. Besides, this growth has been achieved despite the drought situation in the State, implying that cellular growth was insensitive to agricultural income growth, at least during the initial stages.

Besides Karnataka, Hutch is also operating in Andhra Pradesh. In Andhra Pradesh, it has already picked up 12,006 subscribers in the first month of operations. However, the Andhra Pradesh cellular base is much larger than Karnataka, at 5.9 lakh users. But the growth rate in Andhra Pradesh has plateaued - - the sequential growth between May, June and July this year at 5 per cent has remained constant. This is because the existing operators are now focussing more on raising the average revenue per user, instead of raising the subscriber base. The other existing operators in Andhra Pradesh currently are Idea Cellular and Bharti.

BSNL has already launched operations in Tamil Nadu and has already picked up about 806 subscribers in the first month.

In Tamil Nadu, the operators currently are Aircel and BPL. In Tamil Nadu, exclusive of Chennai, the total cellular coverage between the three operators is just about 3.25 lakh, with Aircel being the largest.

Besides, the growth rate in Tamil Nadu has been much lower than that of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. This is despite the higher per capita disposable income in the State, compared to the rest of the southern States.

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