Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has released the GSM subscriber base for December 2009 and, quite expectantly, new additions continue at a higher rate. There has been highest growth rate registered due to some new player like Uninor and S Tel commence their GSM service in various circles, lowest SMS and Roaming tariff by some operators, and Pay Per second tariff adopted by most all GSM operators in last month. The number of new GSM subscribers being added in December month 12.51 million as compared to at a monthly growth rate of 3.41%.
Among the GSM Mobile Service Operators, Vodafone Essar added 2.7mn new users in December, taking its total base to 91.40mn while market leader and largest GSM operator Bharti Airtel record the highest new additions of 2.85mn subscribers by growth rate of 2.46, its total base raised to 118.86mn. Idea Cellular added 1.70mn new customers, boosting its subscriber base to 57.61mn, while Aircel increased its base by over 1.66mn to 31.02mn at highest growth rate.
State operator BSNL added 2.36mn new customers which are just double from last month, taking its reach to 57.22mn. Loop Mobile added 54,276 new subscribers, taking its total to 2.64mn. MTNL added 57,009 new customers, boosting its total base to 4.6mn. Latest entrant in the Indian GSM arena Uninor the mobile service brand of Unitech and Telenor added 1.2mn GSM subscriber in the first month of its operations while S Tel managed just 1,41,411 new subscribers from 3 circles where it stats its GSM mobile service in last month.
In terms of growth rate Aircel again registered the highest growth of 5.69% with 1.66 million subscribers while Idea cellular recorded monthly additions at 3.05% with 1.70 million new subscribers which is just half from last months additions. Market leader Airtel rocks this month and added highest new subscribers at growth of 2.46% and 2.85 million new subscribers while PSU BSNL recorded 3.69% growth with good performance of 2.36 million new additions. Vodafone Essar managed a growth of 3.15% with 2.79 million new additions. If we compare the circle-wise growth than Bihra and Uttar Pradesh (west) circle managed the highest growth rate of 5.71% and 5.34%respectively while Mumbai Merto circle recorded lowest groth rate of just 1.26%.
GSM Opertaor wise % market share – Dec’2009
| GSM Operator | Total Subscriber base | % Market Share |
| Bharti Airtel | 118864031 | 31.29% |
| Vodafone Essar | 91401959 | 24.06% |
| IDEA Cellular | 57611872 | 15.17% |
| BSNL | 57223482 | 15.06 |
| Aircel | 31023997 | 8.17% |
| Reliance Telecom*
(Smart GSM) |
15156401 | 3.99% |
| MTNL | 4565260 | 1.20% |
| Loop Mobile | 2649730 | 0.70% |
| Uninor | 1208130 | 0.32% |
| S Tel | 141411 | 0.04% |
| All India Total | 379846273 | 100% |
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antanil das January 26, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Finally idea has grabbed the 3th position throwing bsnl down to 4th in gsm sector,its because mostly the quality of service by bsnl and marketing offers are not good, earlier in 2006 BSNL was 2nd as per as market revenue but day by day its detorating,thats true.who knows after 2 years aircel might overtake bsnl.and what about the tata docomos figure?
I accept that most telcos are greedy for market share and provide free sims or as low as Rs15-20,moreover proper verification is also not done,just give xerox of id and address which bsnl does not do, that may be one of the reason,but govt of india or DOT is not taking this matter as seriously.
WAKE UP BSNL AND DOT.
mayank katiyar January 23, 2010 at 8:35 pm
where is tata docomo?
i think
airtel+relience=tata docomo
Samir Ghosh January 20, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Everyone knows that some of the SIMs used in 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai, were bought in Kolkata with dubious documents.
Telecom Operators who are influenced by greed for money, profits and market share are not going to put self-curb by putting strict verification systems in place. They are bothered about money and not national security.
What is surprising is that goverment departements are also not pushing pressure on the telecom companies. Everyone one in the trade know that most of the ‘use and throw’ SIMs are pre-activated usings un-verified documents by the retailers.
The real source for manipulation is at retail. As most of the new companies are giving attractive commission to retailers (between Rs 20 to Rs 70 per connection), they are activating SIMs without verifying the authenticity of the documents. Most of the retailers are giving connections on xerox copies of the documents.
Government must impose a kind of penalty to retailers if they are caught providing un-verified documents. If there is no detterent, retailers will cooly give SIMs on forged, un-verified and manipulated documents.
Wake up Government
Sudhir Nagpurkar January 20, 2010 at 1:44 pm
It is not just Airtel. Even other Service Providers are doing the same. Aircel is pioneer of ‘use and throw culture”. Docomo, Idea and others are following the same strategy to enter new circles.
Goverment of India must step in to stop this “use and throw” culture. Most of these Use and Throw SIMs are pre-activated and sold without proper documents.
Prasath J January 17, 2010 at 12:23 am
Almost every operator is doing such things… I even saw BSNL selling SIMs for as low as Rs25 with Rs55 TT…
In TamilNadu, Aircel gives FREE SIM card (just give ID+Photo PROOF) with a magazine last month…
Even Docomo selling SIMs for FREE, with extra Rs50 TT on first recharge..
So these figures are just to look and pass time only and please don’t take it seriously…
ahmad ejaz January 17, 2010 at 12:05 am
hey , these figures correct??
where is TATA docomo???
it has been the largest subscriber adder for several months
amit dubey January 16, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Somehow this info is not fully correct, let me tell u guys airtel was providing the sim at the cost of 15 Rs only with 50 Rs talktime hence many of customers bought n after using the talktime they threw it!!
Thats true!
amit dubey January 16, 2010 at 12:35 pm
@Anuj
no my dear situation is same as in mumbai i am from delhi n basically belong to kanpur(up) and here nobody wants airtel.I would say Airtel means NOTHING .they are simply cheaters and big looters!!
vinay January 15, 2010 at 11:13 pm
r those figures of gross or net customer base. coz many customers add up to the tally but dont remain in the net after couple of months.
Agnivo January 15, 2010 at 10:57 pm
@Jigyasa
@Anuj
I know, I’m still a baby… even if my mind is at 25yrs+, I have been hit with that word many times, some people do enjoy… let them do so… why not? When one profits, the other looses, some are born to be losers for others to make hay… no issues..!
Agnivo January 15, 2010 at 10:54 pm
Agnivrat is not equal to agniv+rat, but agni+vrat(scared ritual)… so use a better name next time (preferably your own… where to hide, whom to hide from?)…
Don’t forget I was a BSNL mobile customer for more than 2yrs… and coming out with utter hard fact is considered blasphemy here in India… atleast you do prove me like that… no issues, mate, enjoy!
Ankur Jain January 15, 2010 at 10:09 pm
I think this is a old information.
Fahad January 15, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Bsnl ki hogayi wah bhai wah…
Sum websites show that uninor has more than 30 lakh customers…
Kitna sach kitna jhut ye jaane k liye hum apne reporter SANJAY BAFNA se jaane ki koshsh karenge..
Agnivrat January 15, 2010 at 8:44 pm
Actully Agnivo is jealous from BSNL’s performance of this month and also their monopoly over 3G so he commented/reacted like this without using the mind.
Anuj January 15, 2010 at 8:33 pm
@ Agnivo,
One thing to mention here, MTNL might have covered entire Mumbai & Delhi but BSNL is far from covering its entire region. Its not even commercially launched here in Pune (6th largest city within BSNL’s licensed area). So you can imagine how poorly 3G subscriber additions are swaying to total subscriber additions.
Anuj January 15, 2010 at 8:17 pm
BSNL babus ‘ll be in relief & Idea babus in worry. Idea is showing very inconsistant performance like 2.5 Mn in one month & just 1.7 in later. Airtel & Vodafone’s range is fixed that is >2.5 Mn per month.
Jigyasa January 15, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Nero minded Agnivo never think beyond this,just for your information BSNL & MTNL adding just 5 to 10% 3G service user out of their 2G additions due to lack of good Budget 3G Handset in India.
and 3G service spectrum and blocks are very limited in all the circles to cater the private operators in 3G so the options will be limited to prospective 3G subscribers and private operator never give the cheapest 3G as BSNL and MTNL giving now a day in India (however they have monopoly) like local and STD video call just at one paisa to any network! and also in six circle including delhi,mumbai, AP and some more still 3G spectrum is not vacant so monopoly of BSNL MTNL will continue for next 2 years approx. in these circles.
so poor baby Agnivo
Agnivo January 15, 2010 at 7:28 pm
Well, BSNL and MTNL has monopoly over 3G connections now, so higher subscriber growth… maybe the 3G factor will not help both when pvt. operators launch 3G!
kaushik January 15, 2010 at 6:17 pm
BSNL may hampered from the fact that it operates in 2 less number of circles namely Delhi and Mumbai than Idea who got all India Network and Idea will expand very fast in 2010
girish January 15, 2010 at 6:13 pm
bsnl customer addition is almost double for december. If this trend continues it may regain the lost glory
Anuj January 15, 2010 at 4:56 pm
Idea managed to achieve this position last month itself. But this month, its BSNL’s turn. BSNL managed to add more customers this time. However, if this good performance continues, we might again see BSNL at third position.
kaushik January 15, 2010 at 4:28 pm
USE AND THROW
Rahul January 15, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Yehi kafi hai uske liye.
kaushik January 15, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Reliance data are for old circles where they launch earlier ( 8 circles )
now they wont post separately for new circles where they launched in 2009
saket January 15, 2010 at 4:11 pm
finally idea comes over bsnl,
inspite of new entrant in many new circles, idea managed 3rd position
raj January 15, 2010 at 4:09 pm
@motta
What is the source of info
Anuj January 15, 2010 at 4:01 pm
And people throw it after use.
Anuj January 15, 2010 at 3:59 pm
BSNL’s performance is improved. I thought Idea might beat BSNL again.
Thats quite true about Mumbai circle! But situation could be slightly different in other circles. Figures are showing right picture. Airtel Mumbai is just adding 10-15K customers per month.
motta January 15, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Reliance reports net addition of 2.8 Million..
raj January 15, 2010 at 2:59 pm
@nilesh tambe
What a animated cry against only one operator.
SIMs are given free of cost by all operators and some operators give sim with 50 rs talk time.
Suman January 15, 2010 at 2:58 pm
@nilesh tambe
What a animated cry against only one operator.
SIMs are given free of cost by all operators and some operators give sim with 50 rs talk time.
Suman January 15, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Impressive additions by all operators.
nilesh tambe January 15, 2010 at 2:09 pm
i think airtel is cheating, nobody is wiling to take airtel in mumbai at least ,they r giving sims free of cost at malls but nobody is taking it, this data is bogus
Sanjay Bafna January 15, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Tata Docomo is not in the list because they did not disclose the GSM data separately.TTSL and RCOM released their data along with CDMA Base.
surendra January 15, 2010 at 1:25 pm
something heavily wrong with this data.
where is docomo?