The Hindu Business Line : GSM mobile cos add 56 lakh subscribers in Sept

New Delhi, Oct. 11 GSM cellular operators added 56 lakh new subscribers in September, taking the total to 15.33 crore mobile users across the country. While Bharti Airtel added over 20 lakh new mobile users, Vodafone Essar increased its tally by 15 lakh. State-owned BSNL could get only 5.9 lakh new subscribers as it is still struggling with capacity issues.

Vodafone has now emerged as the clear number two player in the GSM cellular market with 3.55 crore subscribers, ahead of BSNL, which has just over 3 crore . Bharti Airtel continues at the top without much challenge with nearly 4.9 crore mobile subscribers. Other operators such as Idea Cellular are far behind with less than 1.9 crore subscribers.

In terms of geography, Andhra Pradesh is now the single largest GSM market with 1.13 crore subscribers, overtaking the previous hot spot — Delhi. The second biggest market is Maharashtra, which has 1.12 crore subscribers. Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka are the other States in the top five markets in terms of subscriber base. The growth rate in the four metros has tapered. In fact Punjab and Haryana have more mobile users than Chennai and Kolkata.

Though the growth in September is slightly lower than August when 59 lakh new mobile users were added, market watchers expect the growth rate to be maintained, with operators targeting to reach 50 crore subscribers by 2010. However, crucial policy decisions on spectrum allocation and guidelines for new applicants for telecom licences is expected to be announced this month and this could have a bearing on the growth rate going forward.

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