The Hindu : Business : Cellular subscriber base at 2.8 cr.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 09, 2004

Business

Business

Cellular subscriber base at 2.8 cr.

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JUNE 8. Over nine lakh new cellular (GSM) subscribers were added in May to take the total subscriber base to over 2.81 crores. However, there was a decline in growth as only 9.79 lakh new subscribers were added in May as compared to 9.9 lakh subscribers that were added in April.

According to the latest figures issued by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) here today, with over 73.43 lakh subscribers, the Bharti group cornered 26 per cent of the market followed by Hutch (55.91 subscribers and 19.86 per cent market share) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (55.27 subscribers and 19.63 per cent market share). While the Bharti group added 5.85 lakh subscribers during the month, Hutch added 2.03 lakhs and BSNL 1.72 lakhs.

Another fast growing cellular network, Idea Cellular, notched a subscriber base of 39.61 lakh adding 11.47 lakh subscribers with an increased market share of 14.07 per cent. The merger of Escotel with Idea gave a major boost to latter's subscription figures.

Similarly, BPL now has a subscriber base of 20.87 lakh while the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), having operations in Delhi and Mumbai, ended with a market share of 1.41 per cent with a subscriber base of 3.96 lakhs. Among other players, Spice Telecom now has a subscriber base of 12.7 lakhs, Aircel 11.23 lakhs and Reliance 8.50 lakhs.

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