The Hindu Business Line : BSNL drags down GSM user base growth

New Delhi, July 10 Growth in GSM cellular subscription dipped for the second consecutive month with operators adding 6.3 million new users in June compared to 6.6 million during the previous month.

The slump in growth is primarily due to poor uptake by State-owned Bharat Sanchar NIgam Ltd, which added only 3.6 lakh new mobile users.

BSNL has been facing capacity crunch over the past few months, forcing it to cut down on new additions.

Private mobile operators, however, continued to race ahead.

Bharti’s feat

Bharti Airtel added 2.5 million new subscribers in June, which is the highest ever monthly customer addition by any operator in India.

Bharti Airtel has achieved the distinction of being the second largest operator in the world in terms of customer net additions in a single country (only China mobile is ahead of it).

The company has a total of 69.38 million customers with a market share of over 32.7 per cent in the GSM segment.

Mr Manoj Kohli, President and CEO of Bharti Airtel, said “We are happy we continue to maintain momentum of growth with over 2.5 million customers in a month for the first time. The rural market is responding well to our attractive offerings. This makes us second fastest growth company in the world after China Mobile.”

Other private operators also managed good numbers.

While Vodafone got 1.7 million new subscribers, Idea Cellular’s total user base grew by another million. India now has 212 million GSM mobile subscribers.

BSNL action plan

BSNL officials said that the company is ramping up its network through some additional contracts to existing equipment suppliers.

That apart,it was in the process of finalising a contract for setting up a network to support over 90 million new subscribers across the country.

The official said that the growth rate will pick up over the next 3 to 4 months as the new network gets rolled out.