The Hindu Business Line : Import of mobile handsets without IMEI number banned

via The Hindu Business Line : Import of mobile handsets without IMEI number banned.

Huge impact on grey market phones.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, June 17 In a move that could signal the end of grey market mobile phones, the Government on Wednesday banned import of all handsets without the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number.

IMEI is a unique 15-digit code that identifies a mobile. It prevents the use of stolen handsets for making calls and allows security agencies to track down a specific user. However, a majority of handsets sold in the grey market do not come with the IMEI, which has is of concern for security agencies.

The Government move to ban handsets without the code will hit a number of Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers that were flooding cheap handsets in the grey market. The move will have no impact on the 25 million cellular users who already have bought a handset without IMEI. The ban is applicable only on new handsets being imported into the country.

The Director-General of Foreign Trade issued the notification on Wednesday imposing the ban with immediate effect.

Welcoming the decision, Mr Pankaj Mohindroo, President, Indian Cellular Association, said, “This is a step in the right direction to throttle handset grey market. However, much more needs to be done to tackle this menace. We are working with the Government in this regard.”

To protect consumers who have already bought handsets without the IMEI number, the Cellular Operators Association of India has tied up with Mobile Standard Alliance of India to set up 1,600 retail outlets across the country to provide the IMEI number on handsets without one. It is estimated that there are 25 million subscribers across the country using handsets without the IMEI number. Concerned over the national security, the Department of Telecom had earlier asked operators to disconnect services to handsets that do not have the IMEI number by April 15. However, the COAI, representing the GSM industry, has developed a software that will provide the unique number to instruments that do not have it.

The solution is being implemented with the approval of the DoT and the security agencies. Subscribers who do not avail themselves of this facility will be disconnected by the operators after June 30.

Related stories at

• http://efytimes.com/efytimes/fullnewsxml.asp?edid=35220
• http://www.ciol.com/technology/mobility/news-reports/india-bans-mobile-handsets-without-imei/18609121163/0/
• http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Govt-bans-import-of-Chinese-mobiles/articleshow/4668458.cms

Airtel adds 2.81 mn mobile users in May

From The Financial Express on June 11, 2009

New Delhi: Bharti Airtel, India’s top mobile operator added 2.81 million mobile users in May to have a total of 99.5 million, data from the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) showed on Thursday.

Third-ranked Vodafone Essar added 2.54 million mobile users in May to boost its total to 74.1 million, the data showed

GSM base growth slips again in May (adds 8.3 mil)

The Hindu Business Line Bureau on June 11, 2009

 New Delhi, June 11 GSM based mobile subscription growth rate has slipped for the second consecutive month.

GSM operators added 8.3 million users in May, taking the total user base to 306.45 million, according to the Cellular Operators’ Association of India. The operators had added 8.97 million in April and 10.8 million in March. The slump in growth has been attributed mainly to lower additions by state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.

BSNL saw its subscribers additions slow to 4.5 lakh in May, less than half of April’s 1.04 million and less than one-fifth of record additions of 2.50 million in March. In comparison, Bharti Airtel added 2.8 million new subscribers in May while Vodafone got just over 2.5 million in the same month. “Private operators are maintaining the growth rate. If BSNL ramps up its network then the growth rate will be back on track,” said an industry representative. Both Idea Cellular and Aircel have added more than one million new subscribers each in May.

Related stories at

• http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/India-adds-over-8-mn-GSM-mobile-users-in-May/articleshow/4646220.cms
• http://www.ciol.com/technology/mobility/news-reports/india-adds-8.3mn-gsm-users-in-may/12609120881/0/
• http://www.ciol.com/technology/mobility/news-reports/8-mn-new-gsm-users-in-india/12609120917/0/

Excerpt from above:

Meanwhile, the Reliance Communications (RCom) has deactivated over 36,000 connections in Jammu & Kashmir even as the state police continued its probe into the violation of guidelines in issuing SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) cards.

 

“The company has deactivated 36,000 connections and begun an internal probe into issuance of mobile connections on the basis of fake documents,” senior superintendent of police, crime branch-Jammu, J P Singh said. Singh, who is heading the probe, said Reliance had conveyed to the crime branch the deactivation of these numbers and on the progress of its internal probe.

 

India will get next 400 million mobile users five times faster

From The Hindu Business Line by Thomas K Thomas on 04 June 2009

Thomas K Thomas

New Delhi, June 3 It took 15 years for India to get 400 million mobile users, but under three years it will add the next 400 million.

According to the revised estimates by the Cellular Operators Association of India, the mobile subscriber base is expected to zoom to 893 million by 2012. That is 150 million more subscribers than what was projected earlier. The COAI’s earlier estimates had put the mobile user base at 743 million by 2012.

The reason for the new optimism is derived from the huge uptake of mobile services in rural areas.

Explains Mr T. V. Ramachandran, Director-General, COAI: “We have revised the projections because the rate at which infrastructure is growing is faster than what we had expected. Operators are moving into the hinterland and uncovered areas. Secondly, we are getting almost 50 per cent of our new additions from the rural areas. The third factor is that the level of competition has increased with new players in the sector which again leads to faster deployment of networks.”

According to Mr Atul Bindal, President, Mobility, Bharti Airtel, three out of five new subscribers are now coming from non-urban areas. “Indian growth story is here to stay. I will push back against any view that says to the contrary. There is still a huge untapped market in both rural and urban areas,” says Mr Bindal, who expects Airtel to get its next 100 million users in another two-three years.

India, with 400 million mobile users, is now the second largest market in the world after China which has over 650 million subscribers. According to COAI’s projection, there will be 1.24 billion mobile users in 2015 – which means one phone for every Indian.

GSM broadband users

Our Mumbai Bureau reports: India could have 100 million mobile broadband users on the GSM platform by 2014, if the 3G auctions happen during the current fiscal, according to the GSM Association. Overall broadband penetration in India is 4.7 per cent now.

3G investments would lead to economic benefit worth around $70 billion, Mr Jaikishan Rajaraman, senior director, GSMA, said at a press meet here on Wednesday.

The delay in the auction of 3G spectrum in the past two years has led to a huge loss of around $16 billion, according to a study by global consulting firm LECG Corp.

The losses include direct investments as well as those arising from missed opportunities.

“Cost of capital increases whenever you choose to defer investments,” said Mr Rajaraman.

COAI Gets New Executive Council For 2009-10

From http://www.efytimes.com on June 02, 2009

Tuesday, June 02, 2009: The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the main telecom industry lobby group of India, has announced a new executive council which has taken over the reins of the industry association. Suneeta Reddy, chairperson, Aircel Ltd and vice chairperson, COAI has been appointed as chairperson of COAI. Also Sanjay Kapoor, deputy CEO, Bharti Airtel has now become the vice chairperson of COAI for 2009-10.

During the COAI Annual General Meeting held on 29 May 2009 at New Delhi, outgoing chairman Asim Ghosh thanked the members for their unwavering support during his tenure as chairman. He reminisced fondly about his long association with the industry and the several challenges that the industry had faced and overcome in the last decade.

Ghosh noted that 2008 was a landmark year for the Indian industry as it had reached global scale. He pointed out that the job was never done and there would always be challenges ahead. He thanked Suneeta Ready for her support as vice chairperson, the executive council and the secretariat team for their efforts and contributions and wished them all the very best for the future.

Suneeta Ready, the chairperson elect, thanked the members for the trust and faith reposed in her. She emphasised that COAI had always stood for inclusive growth. She pointed out that the agenda for industry for the next 12 months included ensuring availability of adequate 2G spectrum, an early auction of 3G and BWA spectrum to facilitate the leap to the next generation of services, bridging of the digital divide, improving the financial viability of the industry and making it globally competitive.

Suneeta pointed out that with the imminent introduction of mobile number portability, the SIM card would become like a vote that could be exercised anytime by the consumers, and the industry should make all efforts to ensure that mobile is viewed as a service that adds value to the consumers lives.

The main members of COAI are: Aircel Ltd, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Datacom Solutions Pvt Ltd, Idea Cellular Ltd, Loop Mobile Ltd, Reliance Telecom Ltd, S Tel Pvt Ltd, Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd, Tata Teleservices Ltd, Unitech Wireless Pvt Ltd and Vodafone Essar Ltd.

Story at Financial Express on 30 May, 2009

New Delhi: The COAI Annual General Meeting held at New Delhi saw a smooth transition with the new Executive Council taking over the reins of the industry association.

The event saw the General Body ratify the nominations of Ms. Suneeta Reddy, Chairperson Aircel Ltd. and Vice Chairperson, COAI as Chairperson, COAI and Mr. Sanjay Kapoor, Deputy CEO, Bharti Airtel as Vice Chairperson of COAI for 2009-2010.

The nominations for the Executive Council were also ratified by the General Body.

Outgoing Chairman, Mr. Asim Ghosh thanked the members for their unwavering support during his tenure as Chairman. He reminisced fondly about his long association with the industry and the several challenges that the industry had faced and overcome in the last decade. He also noted how 2008 was a landmark year for the Indian industry as it had reached global scale. He pointed out that the job was never done and there would always be challenges ahead.

Interview with the new Telecom IT Minister

From The Hindu Business Line on 30 May 2009

New Delhi, May 29 The Communications and IT Minister, Mr Andimuthu Raja, expects telephone tariffs to come down to as low as 10 paise a minute for local calls and to 25 paise a minute for domestic long distance calls as a result of the decisions taken by him in the previous tenure.

Mr Raja, who has been appointed as the telecom minister for the second consecutive time, said that auction for third generation spectrum is on top of the agenda and should be completed in two months.

The Minister said that the decisions taken by him during the previous tenure to bring in more mobile operators should lead to lower tariffs. “Local calls at 10 paise a minute and inter-State calls at 20 paise a minute is my motto. I would work towards enabling world class telecom services to the masses at competitive and affordable rates,” Mr Raja said.

On the issue of auctioning 3G and broadband spectrum, Mr Raja said that he will soon take the policy to the Cabinet. He added that he expected higher revenue generation from 3G auction as a result of a revival in the markets.

For the IT sector, the Minister said that he will speak to the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister to extend tax incentives under Software Technology Park of India until 2012. Introduction of IT at the lowest level of governance will also be on the Minister’s agenda. “I want to make the functioning of the government offices paperless through the introduction of technology,” Mr Raja said. He said that his Ministry will promote manufacturing of electronic hardware in the country and encourage investments under the new semiconductor policy.

On the revival of postal services, the Minister said he will take measures to bring India Post at par with the global standards. Mr Raja will be assisted by two Ministers of State, Mr Sachin Pilot and Mr Gurdas Kamat.

Industry reacts positively

The industry reacted positively to Mr Raja’s appointment. Mr T.V. Ramachandran, Director-General, Cellular Operator’s Association of India, said, “There will be continuity in the positive measures which were being planned by the Communications Ministry. We are sure that Mr Raja will take effective measures to take Indian telecom sector to the next level of growth.”

Mr S.C. Khanna, Association of Unified Telecom Services Providers of India said, “We have always been supportive of Mr Raja’s policies. We hope that he will continue to enable new players to emerge in the market. He should allocate up to 6.2 Mhz of spectrum to the new players instead of 4.4 Mhz as is being suggested.”

The Internet Service Providers said that the Minister should re-look at opening up net telephony because it is in line with the stated objective of bringing affordable communication to the masses.

“It is good that Mr Raja has got another innings as the telecom minister. He understands the sector well and knows what needs to be done from day one. Any new person would have had taken time to study the various reform measures required for this sector,” said Mr Rajesh Chharia, President, Internet Service Providers Association of India.

Mr Raja is expected to take charge of the Ministry next week as he along with other Cabinet Ministers from the DMK party have gone to Chennai.

India To Have 492 Million Mobile Phone User By End-2009 – Indus Body

From http://www.nasdaq.com on 29 May 2009

NEW DELHI -(Dow Jones)- A cellular industry body Wednesday said it expects India to have some 492 million mobile phone users by the year-end, compared with 392 million at the end of March.

The Cellular Operators Association of India – which represents more than a dozen telecommunications companies offering GSM services – expects the industry’s mobile subscriber base to reach close to 900 million by 2012.

GSM is short for global system for mobile communications technology, and three of four of India’s 391.76 million users are on this platform.

“Even with the subscriber base of 900 million, the teledensity would be just 72.4%,” COAI said.

Bharti Airtel Ltd., India’s largest telecommunication service provider by number of subscribers, had some 96.73 million users at the end of April.

For telecom minister, 3G top priority

28 May 2009, 0724 hrs IST, Shalini Singh, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: The Department of Telecom (DoT) has made 3G auctions a top priority item for the telecom ministry as soon as the new telecom minister takes office by next week.

A senior DoT official told TOI that this matter will be discussed with the new minister immediately on his taking charge. “3G auctions will definitely be held this year and sooner rather than later”, he said. Confirming this, DoT secretary Siddharth Behura told TOI, “3G auctions also carry the all round support of policy makers, including the finance ministry which needs to bridge the fiscal deficit, one of the biggest drawbacks in India’s balance sheet”.

Since the government can’t raise taxes sharply during the slowdown or cut expenditures it is highly likely that the finance ministry will push for an early and global 3G auction to be held within the next few months. The interim budget has already factored in revenues of Rs 20,000 crore from 3G auctions, just half telecom minister A Raja’s projections of Rs 40,000 crore in August 2008.

Average pan-India 3G spectrum is expected to rake in over Rs 4,000 crore. The government plans to auction 2×5 MHz of spectrum in varying proportions except Rajasthan and North East (see chart).

This time, 3G auctions also carry wide-ranging support from the industry. T V Ramachandran, director general, COAI, said, “3G auctions will definitely take place this year. It is a strong way of alleviating the spectrum crunch faced by GSM operators”.

“It is clear that 3G will be a priority for the new government as the auction framework is already in place and there is increasing interest from the mass market with 3G phones at less than $100/set hitting the market by 2010,” said Manoj Kohli, chief executive office & Jt managing director, Bharti Airtel. At present only 6% of mobile phones in India are 3G capable.

Also 3G will also contribute significantly to mobile valueadded services (VAS), which has been growing at nearly 40% every year as against the overall annual telecom revenue growth of 20%. This will prop up the rapidly declining average revenues per user (Arpu) of telcos.

“It is critical for operators that 3G auctions are held quickly as with mobile number portability and new operators, better quality 3G networks offering both better voice quality and VAS will be the only differentiator to prevent high end customers from switching to competing networks”, says Kunal Bajaj, managing director of consulting firm BDA India.

3G is an attractive policy move even for rural development by being a strong potential catalyst for e-Education, remote health care and m-Banking. RBI is currently reviewing the regulations for m- Banking, especially keeping in mind the needs of rural India. The success of the 3G auctions will depend upon the speed, transparency of process as well as the government’s ability to put out non-discriminatory auction terms for the existing 14 and potential new global operators.

Earlier in the year, the government released an information memorandum, appointed auctioneers and held pre-bid conference in the run up to the proposed 3G auction in January 2009. However, since neither industry nor the political environment favoured 3G auctions, India had to miss its date with what is perhaps the most high profile auction of a scarce national resource in this decade.

Mobile operators cross connections over 11-digit number plan

Ishita Russell / New Delhi May 25, 2009, 0:14 IST on Business Standard

Differences are growing among mobile operator lobbies over a government proposal to introduce an 11-digit access code in place of the existing 10-digit code from January 2010 for mobile services to accommodate a rapidly growing subscriber base.

Meanwhile, the government has also amended the national numbering plan to allow sub-levels of 8 to be used as access codes for mobiles. This means that from February 9 this year, mobile numbers may also start with the number 8.

The need for a new numbering plan has arisen because India’s mobile subscriber base has grown at a faster pace than expected. The numbering plan that is applicable now was formulated in 2003 on a forecast of 50 per cent tele-density by 2030. This made numbering space available for 750 million telephone connections, comprising an anticipated 300 million basic and 450 million cellular mobile connections.

With India adding over 10 million mobile subscribers every month, the country is already just short of 400 million mobile subscribers and the telecom penetration level stands at over 37 per cent. Therefore, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has had to re-examine plans to accommodate more subscribers.

GSM-technology service providers, which account for the bulk of mobile services in the country, welcomed the addition of the 8 level but objected to the 11-digit numbering plan, saying it would inconvenience incumbent subscribers.

“The increase of one digit in the existing numbers is unnecessary; there is a sufficient quota of numbers. The opening up of the sub-levels of 8 has also created new options for numbering,” said T V Ramachandran, Director General, Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI), the GSM operators’ lobby which represents such service providers as Bharti and Vodafone.

COAI has contended that in addition to the 98, 99, 93, 94, 92 and 97 codes in use by mobile phone operators, the 91 code is vacant and can be used as can the 96 code, which was meant for pagers.

Also, DoT has allocated exclusive two-digit codes to three operators — 92 for Tata Tele, 93 for Reliance Communications and 94 for BSNL (all three provide CDMA and GSM services), a move that has also been opposed by COAI since other operators have do not have exclusive codes. “DoT should also open up these numbers,” said Ramachandran.

Agreeing with COAI, telecom analyst Mahesh Uppal said, “Although 11 digits mean that you have nine billion more numbers to allot, it also means that it is more inconvenient for the consumer at the end of the day”, especially since the existing 400 million-odd subscribers will also have to change their numbers.

“Other options like the 8 sub levels should also be explored to avoid confusion,” he added.

CDMA operators, however, say opening up sub-levels of 8 is not enough for the industry that adds over 10 million subscribers to its base every month and an 11-digit numbering is necessary.

“There are already about eight established players in the telecom space and at least three more will be added during the year, so we will need more numbers to cater to the expanding mobile subscriber base,” said S C Khanna, secretary general of CDMA lobby Association of Unified Service Providers of India.

This is not the first time phone numbers will be modified in recent years. A few years ago, the government had added the number 2 in front of all BSNL and MTNL fixed line phones across the country.

Mobile Subscriber Growth Slowing Down in India

On Second Republic on 22 May 2009

New subscriber additions by India’s mobile operators appears to be slowing down – the country added around 11.46 million mobile subscribers in April 2009, the lowest in a month in 2009. Compared to additions in the first three months of 2009, this is surely a significant drop. After adding more than 28 million subscribers in January and February, India had added 15.64 wireless subscribers during the month of March 2009. Total subscriber additions in the Jan-March quarter stood at more than 43 million, a world record by all accounts.

Reliance Communications, which offers both GSM and CDMA mobile services, had added around 2.6 million new subscribers during March 2009. Compared to that, it only added around 1.75 million subscribers in April, according to data from AUSPI. In January and February, the operator had added more than 8 million subscribers.

As the April GSM subscriber data shows, almost all GSM operators witnessed a negative growth in monthly subscriber additions. Market leader Bharti Airtel saw only a marginal growth of 0.1% in month on month subscriber additions, according to the data released by industry group Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). State-owned BSNL, which had added around 2.5 million subscribers in March, saw the biggest drop in monthly growth. Idea Cellular saw a 25.8% drop in its month additions.

With subscriber additions slowing down, it’s going to be challenging for the new operators to take on the current incumbents. However, Aircel’s performance in April is noteworthy and may interest the new operators. Aircel launched its GSM service in several parts of India only recently and had registered a 10.5% growth in its monthly subscriber additions in April.

Fewer users sign up for GSM in April

14 May 2009, 0350 hrs IST, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: GSM telecom operators in India recorded a lower number of subscriber additions of 8.9 million in April as against 10.8 million in March, led by a sharp dip in monthly additions by state-owned telcos BSNL and MTNL. BSNL added just over 1 million users in April as against over 2.5 million in March. The total GSM subscriber base now stands at 297.7 million, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said on Wednesday. The subscriber base data for Reliance Communication was not reported.

Another state-owned telco MTNL, which operates in Mumbai and Delhi, also saw a dip in monthly additions with about 45,553 users in April compared with 92,097 users in the previous month. Both MTNL and BSNL now have a subscriber base of 4.2 million and 47.7 million, respectively.

Airtel led the number of additions made by the GSM operators in April. Inching closer to the 100 million subscriber-base mark, market leader Bharti Airtel added 2.8 million users in April compared with 2.8 million in March, taking its total subscriber base to 96.7 million.

As a result, Bharti Airtel continues to lead the GSM market with a market share of about 32.5% followed by Vodafone Essar with 24.03%. Vodafone Essar, the second-largest private GSM player, reported a total subscriber base of 71.5 million with about 2.7 million users added during April. It added lesser number of users in April compared to March, when it saw close to 2.8 million new users, as per data compiled by COAI.

Aircel, which recently launched its services in Delhi, added over 1.1 million subscribers all India. The operator now has about 19.5 million subscribers in its portfolio. Idea Cellular also added about 1.1 million subscribers during April, taking its total subscriber base to 44.1 million.

(Excerpt from India adds 8.9 mn GSM mobile users in April, 13 May 2009, 1542 hrs IST, REUTERS, reported on ET)

Reliance Communications, which had 72.67 million subscribers at end-March, expanded its GSM mobile services to all the service areas of the country in January, but the majority of its customers are still on rival CDMA technology. Tata Teleservices, in which Japan’s NTT DoCoMo owns a 26 percent stake, also operates on CDMA and monthly additions are reported separately.

Sunil Jain: Telecom nirvana

(From http://www.business-standard.com/) Sunil Jain / New Delhi May 7, 2009, 0:00 IST

Look at regular reports from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the message is clear: India’s mobile phone firms are providing pretty lousy service to their customers. That’s also a perception you get from talking to customers — who doesn’t have his/her call-drop stories? While the established telcos deny their service is that bad, or blame it on the lack of spectrum, the question is whether the service is bad enough to get subscribers to leave. It is for this reason that TRAI decided Mobile Number Portability (MNP) had to be introduced at the earliest. In return for a fee, subscribers can retain their existing number but use the service of another mobile phone company — so, you can have an Airtel phone but actually get your service from Vodafone, or vice-versa.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) regularly gets sample surveys done to get a fix on the ‘churn’, or the rate at which subscribers leave and get their services from rival networks. The ‘churn’, COAI surveys show have been falling — it rose from 6 per cent in 2002 to 7.3 per cent in 2004 and fell to 3.4 per cent last year. Assuming the sample is representative, does it mean consumers will not change their numbers when MNP comes into force? Depends. One reason for low ‘churn’ could be that the service is uniformly bad across all providers, so subscribers haven’t shifted. But now, with new players coming in, the picture could be different. Now is when you’ll get to know the real ‘churn’

MTNL, BSNL get poor response to 3G

Ishita Russell / New Delhi April 3, 2009, 0:34 IST

Telecom firms hoping for a major shift by mobile customers to high-speed third generation (3G) services may be in for a disappointment. Between them, state-owned telecom companies Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), which offers telecom services in Mumbai and Delhi, have managed to rope in just 3,200-odd customers for their 3G services.

Two months after its commercial launch in February this year, MTNL has been able to get 200 to 300 subscribers for 3G services in Delhi. It will launch services in Mumbai only in May.
MTNL Chairman RSP Sinha said, “We have 200-300 customers and hoped to roll out all over Delhi in a few months. I can’t say how many subscribers we will have, but by the end of the year should have 2,000 to 3,000.”

BSNL has not done much better. It has managed to garner 3,000 customers in over 24 cities since a month of its commercial launch, said an official. That means it has, on an average, 125 customers in each city — which includes Agra, Ambala, Jalandhar, Jaipur, Dehradun, Shimla, Lucknow, Ranchi and Patna, among others. However, it claims it will be in 500 cities in the next three months.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) had projected that as much as 10 per cent of the 375 million mobile customers would shift to 3G services in the first year of its launch in the country.

The two government-owned companies have notched up poor subscriber numbers despite the first-mover advantage given to them by the government to offer 3G services in December last year. Meanwhile, private players’ entry into 3G services has been delayed indefinitely over pricing controversies.

“There is so much competition in the Indian telecom industry that when the private operators get into 3G services, they will deploy very aggressive and competitive strategies,” said Harit Shah, telecom analyst with Angel Broking.

Mobile phone firms add 11mn GSM users in Mar

Posted: Mon, Apr 13 2009. 11:20 PM IST by Shauvik Ghosh on www.livemint.com

New Delhi: The number of mobile phone customers in India using the Global System for Mobile communications, or GSM, technology rose by 10.8 million, the highest addition ever in a month, to 288.36 million in March from February’s 277.5 million, according to data from industry body Cellular Operators Association of India, or COAI.

GSM is the dominant wireless phone standard in India, accounting for more than three in four mobile phone users here.

Vodafone Essar Ltd with 2.84 million new additions showed the highest number of subscribers added in March over the previous month, taking its total user base to 68.7 million subscribers. Bharti Airtel Ltd reported a rise of 2.8 million subscribers, taking its total to 93.92 million. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd showed the second highest percentage increase in subscribers over the previous month, with a rise of 5.67% or 2.5 million subscribers, taking its total to 46.68 million.

India GSM Mobile Subscribers Grow 50% in 2008

Published on 1/14/2009 9:18:09 AM

GSM subscriber base in India grew by 50% in 2008 according to the most recent data released by the Cellular Operators Association of India, an interest group made up of Indian GSM operators. GSM operators added around 8.12 million subscribers during the last month of 2008. The final growth percentage might up further as the current data does not include December subscriber addition numbers for Reliance.

Bihar (including Jharkhand) registered the highest growth (85%) followed by Orissa (70%), West Bengal including Kolkata (67%), Rajasthan (64%) and Assam (63%). Other North Eastern states and Madhya Pradesh grew by around 62%.

The high growth in these states underscores the growing penetration of mobile phones in rural, semi-urban and poorer sections of the population. While state operator BSNL has played an important role in expansion of mobile services in these states, aggressive launch by new operators like Aircel and market leaders like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone has also played a crucial role in mobile subscriber growth in these states.

GSM subscriber growth in the metro cities of Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai grew by around 34% in 2008 and they now account for around 15% of the total GSM subscribers in India. Among these big cities, Kolkata registered the highest (57%) growth, followed by Mumbai (35%).