22.9.09

Tata Teleservices tops in August

Telecom firms have been turning head over heels to snare new subscribers. In the mad race to be at the top, wireless operators have been using every trick in the book to bring in the numbers, like launching GSM services in addition to already existing CDMA networks. It appears to have worked for Tata Teleservices, which added over 34 lakh subscribers in one month alone. Ahead of its nearest competitor in terms of new addition by a whopping six lakh subscribers, Tata Teleservices trumped the competition in August, with its pan-India dual-technology telecom service, according to a report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the Cellular Operators Association of India. Bharti Airtel, which has hogged the numero uno slot for several months, had to contend with the second position adding 28 lakh subscribers in the same period—revealing a gap of six lakh subscribers between the front-runner. Vodafone was in the third place with 21 lakh additions in August. Another player with dual technology—CDMA and GSM—Reliance Communications, was in the fourth spot with 16 lakh additions, slightly ahead of Idea, which added 15 lakh in August. Tata Teleservices added on 3,418,138 new subscribers in August 2009 in its CDMA (Tata Indicom) and GSM operations (Tata DoCoMo) put together. In July 2009 too, the firm showed healthy growth in new additions, with 2,247,002 new subscribers being added. The firm’s GSM offering, launched recently, commenced commercial operations in eight circles. State-owned BSNL managed to add 13 lakh subscribers in the month of August, down from its 16 lakh subscribers added in July. Similarly in July, Vodafone added marginally higher subscribers, at 22 lakh (21 lakh in August), while Reliance (CDMA + GSM) which had managed to add over 19 lakh subscribers in July, was down to 16 lakh by the next month.

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