Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) recently shared the GSM base figures for September 2009 and it comes as no surprise to see that GSM Subscriber growth has slowed down even further… the healthy growth of 10.8 million subscribers (March 2009) is a thing of the past and recent numbers of 9.89 million, 9.74 million and 9.01 million have been haunting Telecom analysts since July, August and September, respectively.
While the total no. of GSM users reported by COAI increased from 335.42 million to 344.43 million (individual operator split below) the Top 5 gainers in terms of net subscriber additions were Bharti Airtel (25.14 lacs), Vodafone-Essar (19.71 lacs), Idea Cellular (13.95 lacs) closely followed by BSNL (13.02 lacs) and Aircel (12.93 lacs).
| Operators | Aug-09 | Sep-09 |
| Bharti Airtel | 107,996,533 | 110,511,416 |
| Vodafone Essar | 80,874,460 | 82,846,046 |
| BSNL | 52,056,417 | 53,358,992 |
| IDEA Cellular | 50,058,471 | 51,454,402 |
| Aircel | 24,380,080 | 25,673,515 |
| Reliance GSM | 13,281,225 | 13,723,380 |
| MTNL | 4,352,781 | 4,369,502 |
| Loop | 2,417,446 | 2,495,087 |
| TOTAL BASE REPORTED | 335,417,413 | 344,432,340 |
While the subscriber additions may look encouraging, a closer look at the GSM Market share (basis the figures reported by COAI) show a decline in the stake of the leading telcos – Bharti Airtel (-0.11%), Vodafone-Essar (-0.06%) and BSNL (-0.03%). The biggest gainer continues to be Aircel (+0.19%) in spite of the fact that it has not had any launces since the Maharashtra-Goa circle rollout.
| Operators | Aug-09 | Sep-09 |
| Bharti Airtel | 32.20% | 32.09% |
| Vodafone Essar | 24.11% | 24.05% |
| BSNL | 15.52% | 15.49% |
| IDEA Cellular | 14.92% | 14.94% |
| Aircel | 7.27% | 7.45% |
| Reliance GSM (old) | 3.96% | 3.98% |
| MTNL | 1.30% | 1.27% |
| Loop | 0.72% | 0.72% |
| TOTAL MARKET | 100.00% | 100.00% |
NOTE: Data of CDMA Operators Reliance, Tata Indicom & MTS are not a part of this story which is on the GSM growth. Also, data for Reliance GSM (new circles) and Tata DoCoMo has not been shared by COAI.
You can read earlier stories on the June, July and August 2009 GSM Subscriber base growth by clicking on any of the month names.
Fahad October 24, 2009 at 12:01 pm
And also bsnl hs gained many new customers now
Fahad October 24, 2009 at 11:55 am
Lot nd l.ot of improvement shown by idea and aircel….
hossain October 24, 2009 at 11:37 am
its all abt competetion, idea initially were to launch by oct but postponed it to dec, but they have to launch by oct in a haste decision and a bid to foil the market of docomo.
so it is tough time for both
kaushik October 21, 2009 at 10:46 am
i think they dont gettting free space for giving ads in hoarding in kolkata, majority are occupied by docomo
kluge October 21, 2009 at 10:30 am
Idea taking too much time for official launch in Kolkata although sim cards available.But it’s very difficult to connect other service providers.I cannot realize when they will officially declare.
kaushik October 18, 2009 at 7:50 am
Airtel in Mumbai really sucks.Its customer addition here is only around 10000 per month for last 1 year or so
Idrees October 17, 2009 at 11:51 am
This is an overall trend in the customer growth and is not confined to any particular operator,the biggies don’t need to bother as long as they r providing quality services to their customers and if taking it in different aspect if they feel it a concern i am sure they will work it out and yes they know how to..
Shoeb October 17, 2009 at 10:42 am
Idea has realized this and introduced per second plan and low call rate plane @ 40ps for its customers to choose from.
This is very good strategy by Idea cellular to retain its customers and gain new ones.. while its launching these plans circle wise lets see how many circles they cover with super seconds plan
Ashesh October 17, 2009 at 9:51 am
The big players do not take any initiative about the lucrative offers of the newbees and naturally losing their growth as well as percentage.Airtel Vodafone should take pay per second policy in the relevant states where they continue to maintain their leads otherwise they may face more erosions of their customer bases.