Indian Telecom Companies Create World Record
As per statistics made available on April 22, 2009, Indian telecom industry clocked the highest subscriber addition in a month by adding 15.87 million subscribers in March, 2009. The authorities said that the entry of new players in the telecom sector along with Reliance Communications (R Com) starting its GSM services, pushed India to create record for subscriber addition in a month. It is worth mentioning in this regard that India set a world record in January 2009 by adding 15 million subscribers, the highest ever monthly addition in any country.
The latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) showed that while the wireless (GSM, CDMA and fixed WLL) segment witnessed the addition of 15.64 million users, the wireline segment saw an increase for the first time in two years with addition of 2,30,000 to its subscribers base. The fixed wireline segment subscriber base has been on the decline for the past few years, especially in the rural sector, where consumers are opting more for the wireless system.
The wireless subscriber base stood at 391.76 million at the end of March 2009 as compared to 376.12 million in the previous month. The wireless subscriber base grew to 37.96 million as compared to 37.73 million in February 2009. However, on a yearly basis, the wireless segment saw a decline of 3.7 percent from 39.42 subscribers in March 2008.
The additions have also led to an increase in the total teledensity to 36.98 percent at the end of March 2009. It stood at 35.65 percent a month earlier. The broadband penetration in the country also witnessed an increase as the total broadband subscriber base crossed the 6 million mark to reach 6.22 million by the end of March 2009, as compared to 5.85 million by the end of February 2009. With its foray into the GSM space, R Com led subscriber growth in the wireless segment with the addition of 3.02 million subscribers in March 2009 to take its wireless subscriber base to 72.66 million. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar added 2.8 million subscribers each during the month to take their subscriber base to 93.92 million and 68.76 million respectively. Tata Teleservices added about 1.25 million subscribers to clock a total of 35.12 million subscribers.