GSM operators – Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone Essar – have witnessed a decline in their number of mobile phone users in September, marking the second consecutive month their customer bases have fallen, as users with more than one mobile connection continued to surrender numbers. In August, the trio — which accounts for about 67% of the sector’s revenues — had jointly lost over 5 million customers, the first time in over a decade that these mobile phone companies had seen a de-growth.
While sector regulator Trai is yet to release September subscriber data, it is learnt that the three GSM operators jointly lost more than 2.2 million customers, a clear indicator that key markets in the country are reaching a saturation point, and many customers are not renewing their second or third mobile connections after financially stretched telcos began withdrawing freebies over the past couple of months. These operators had added a total of 3.16 million subscribers in July and 4.42 million in June.
The country’s mobile user base fell for the first time in July 2012. But over 99% of the 20.71 million decline in July was due to a single company, Reliance Communications, that deactivated over 13% of its customers who had not used their phones for more than 60 days. In the month of August, the mobile base declined to 939.57 from 944.81 million subscribers in July as GSM incumbents disconnected their non-active users. The weeding out exercise has also resulted in the number of active customers, which is users who make at least one call or send a text message in 60 days, increasing to 78% when compared to 68% of the total subscriber base a year ago.
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