Wednesday, 6 November 2013
Dual technology player Reliance Communications has lost 10.49 million subscribers in September, taking its overall customer base to 116 million. The company has been deactivating inactive subscribers from its networks.
With its subscriber base reduced to 116 million subscribers in the country, the company now holds 13.35 percent market share of the cellular subscriber base in India.
In a statement to Reuters, Reliance Communications said it had deactivated unprofitable and low-end subscribers.
RCom said that this deactivation would have no impact on its revenue. The massive plunge in subscriber base pushed Reliance Communications to the fourth spot when it comes to total number of customers in the country.
According to Telecom Regulatory Authority Of India (TRAI) data, India’s third largest GSM service provider Idea Cellular added the maximum number of 1.21 million subscribers in the month and now has 14.61 percent share in terms of number of cellular subscribers.
Vodafone India on the other hand added around 1.20 million subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel at 1.16 million new subscribers. Bharti Airtel presently leads the India telecom market with 22.21 percent subscriber share, followed by Vodafone India, which has 17.87 percent share.
Aircel added 0.64 million subscribers in the month and stood fourth in terms of new additions. Videocon Telecom added 0.31 million new subscribers during the month.
Uninor, which achieved break-even in five circles out of its six circles in the country, also added 0.12 million new subscribers, followed by Loop Telecom, which added 61,301 new subscribers.
Besides RCom, other telecom operators whose subscriber numbers dipped in the month of September were Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and MTNL. TTSL lost 143,567 subscribers while MTNL lost 232,273 subscribers.
Sistema Shyam TeleServices (MTS India) and BSNL lost 12,690 and 74,566 subscribers, respectively, during the month.
Overall, India's telecom subscriber base plunged in the month of September 2012 by six percent, bringing the total base below the 900-million mark. The overall subscriber base stood at 899.96 million by the end of the month.
Total wireless subscriber base decreased from 876.72 million in August 2013 to 870.58 million at the end of September 2013, registering a monthly decline of 0.70 percent.
On the other hand, the country’s wireline subscriber base declined from 29.46 million at the end of August 2013 to 29.28 million at the end of September 2013. Net reduction in wireline subscriber base was 0.17 million at a rate of 0.59 percent.
