Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has released the GSM subscriber base for August 2009 and, quite expectantly, new additions continue - however at a slower rate. There has been a steady decline in the number of new GSM subscribers being added month on month: - 10.8 million (March 2009), 9.89 million (July 2009) and 9.74 million (August 2009).
While this trend may be an alarm bell for new entrants such as UNITECH WIRLESS, VODECON and ETISALAT DB (Swan) who are yet to launch their services , it is also an indicator of things to come for existing major operators AIRTEL, VODAFONE and IDEA once Mobile Number Portability (MNP) gets launched this December. With lesser number of subscriber additions, its likely customers would move away from AIRTEL/VODAFONE/IDEA and go to newer players like TATA DOCOMO/AIRCEL/MTS who currently offer the cheapest local & STD call rates at rates as low as 1paise per second, and both extremeties of the charging pattern - PAY PER SECOND (for low-end users) and PAY PER CALL (for heavy users).
Below details of the base for each of the operators - JULY vs AUGUST 2009:
| Operators | Jul-09 | Aug-09 | New Subscribers: | Market% |
| Bharti Airtel | 105,177,635 | 107,996,533 | 2,818,898 | 32.20% |
| Vodafone Essar | 78,680,291 | 80,874,460 | 2,194,169 | 24.11% |
| BSNL | 50,700,367 | 52,056,417 | 1,356,050 | 15.52% |
| IDEA Cellular | 48,516,824 | 50,058,471 | 1,541,647 | 14.92% |
| Aircel | 23,080,079 | 24,380,080 | 1,300,001 | 7.27% |
| Reliance GSM | 12,840,939 | 13,281,225 | 440,286 | 3.96% |
| MTNL | 4,332,631 | 4,352,781 | 20,150 | 1.30% |
| Loop | 2,350,537 | 2,417,446 | 66,909 | 0.72% |
| 325,679,303 | 335,417,413 | 9,738,110 |
While AIRTEL, VODAFONE and BSNL remained in the TOP 3 GSM players, their respective market shares showed a decline over the previous month, with relatively-new entrants IDEA, AIRCEL & RELIANCE GSM displaying a positive movement in their respective shares:
| Operators | JUL 09 Share | AUG 09 Share | Gain % |
| Bharti Airtel | 32.29% | 32.20% | -0.10% |
| Vodafone Essar | 24.16% | 24.11% | -0.05% |
| BSNL | 15.57% | 15.52% | -0.05% |
| IDEA Cellular | 14.90% | 14.92% | 0.03% |
| Aircel | 7.09% | 7.27% | 0.18% |
| Reliance GSM | 3.94% | 3.96% | 0.02% |
| MTNL | 1.33% | 1.30% | -0.03% |
| Loop | 0.72% | 0.72% | 0.00% |
| 100.00% | 100.00% |
Do check out the the GSM SUBSCRIBER Base which, with Sanjay Bafna's help, will include CDMA operators details from now onwards:
https://telecomtalk.info/gsm-subscriber-base/
