22.4.09

Telcos add record 16 m users in March

Indian telcos created a global record by adding 15.64 million new mobile users in March beating its earlier record of signing up 15 million new customers set earlier in January 09. The number of phone connections in the country-mobile and landline-has crossed 429 million as of March-end, Trai said on Tuesday. The robust growth has also helped push the country’s tele-density to 37%. This means, there are 37 phone connections for every 100 people in India. Importantly, the month of March also marks the first time that landline base has shown an increase in the last 12 months. The wireline subscriber-base increased to 37.96 million in March against 37.73 million in the previous month (February 2009) registering a marginal increase of 0.23 million, Trai said. The growth is accounted by the two as state-owned PSUs — BSNL’s landline base has gone up by 117,004 while for MTNL is up by 59,057. BSNL and MTNL officials say the new takers for their broadband and IPTV services could be one of the reasons for the increase in landline numbers. Besides, both telcos have also initiated a series of incentives, including launching attractive tariff packages to arrest the surrender of landlines. As per Trai data, mobile phone users now account for close to 92% of the country’s telephone base. The record growth in the past three months is clear proof of the fact that the world’s fastest growing telecom market remains untouched by the economic slowdown. The industry maintained the growth momentum with operators expanding networks to smaller towns and villages. Besides, cheap call rates have also helped the record growth. March growth was led by Reliance Communications (RCOM) that added over 3.2 million new users, GSM and CDMA combined, taking its subscriber base to 72.7 million. The broadband sector also recorded positive growth. “Total broadband subscribers base has reached 6.22 million by the end of March 2009 as compared to 5.85 million by the end of February 2009,” Trai added. March also marked the first month where Vodafone Essar had upstaged Bharti Airtel for the first time in subscriber additions. Vodafone Essar added 2.85 million new users in March and thereby taken its customer base to just under 69 million, while Bharti Airtel added only 2.81 million.

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