Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Nov 07, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Nov 07, 2003 |
|
|
|
|
|
Info-Tech
-
Telecommunications Reliance Infocomm subscriber base touches 5-million mark Our Bureau
New Delhi , Nov. 6 RELIANCE Infocomm Ltd has become the first telecom operator to cross the five million-mark in terms of subscribers in the wireless sector (GSM cellular plus limited mobility) in October. As per the latest statistics released by both the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on Wednesday and the Association of Basic Telecom Operators (ABTO) today, the company has cornered 53.80 lakh customers, with 47.55 lakh subscribers across the country in the WLL segment and a cellular subscriber base of 6.25 lakh in seven circles. The Bharti group, which does not offer WLL services, comes second with 48.62 lakh cellular subscribers. What is even more impressive is the fact that Reliance has added a total of 5.84 lakh additional subscribers, with 5.71 lakh new WLL connections and 0.12 lakh new cellular connections during the month. As compared to this, Bharti could manage only 2.45 lakh additional customers for its cellular services. On the whole, however, the WLL subscriber base continues to lag behind the cellular subscriber base of 193.52 lakh, and still has a long way to go before it becomes the largest mobile service in the country. As per the ABTO estimates, while a total of 52.45 lakh subscribers have registered for the WLL services, 9.73 lakh subscribers are for the fixed-line services and 6.83 lakh customers are for the fixed wireless services. Among the private basic operators, Reliance continues to be on top mainly on the strength of its limited mobility services. The company has only 160 fixed line customers in Gujarat and close to two lakh fixed wireless customers across the country. Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) comes second with a subscriber base of 11.95 lakh (4.35 lakh WLL, 4.23 lakh fixed wireless and 3.36 lakh fixed line). Bharti Telenet, the basic service arm of the Bharti group, has a subscriber base of 5.23 lakh (4.95 lakh fixed line and 0.28 lakh fixed wireless). Meanwhile, reacting to the latest estimates, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has noted that the subscriber base for wireless services continued to maintain its growth pattern during October 2003, also. During the month approximately 1.05 million cellular and 0.64 million WLL (M) subscribers were added, making it a total of 1.69 million. "In India, at the end of October 2003, fixed lines would be of the order of 42 millions and mobiles around 25 millions. At this rate of growth, we expect to reach teledensity of seven in 2003 itself. It was earlier targeted for March 2005, in the Tenth Plan. A target of 15 was proposed to be achieved by 2010. At this rate of growth, we should achieve this target in the year 2006," the TRAI has noted.
Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication
|
Stories in this Section |
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2003, The
Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu Business Line
|