The all-India wireless subscribers base stood at around 584 million in March

India: wireless subscribers base stood at around 584 million

The all-India wireless subscribers base stood at around 584 million in March with monthly subscriber accretions at an all-time high of around 20.3 million. Among the top operators, Vodafone Essar Ltd posted record addition of around 3.6 million (up 17.6% se- quentially), followed by Bharti Airtel Ltd and Reliance Commu- nications Ltd at around three million each (up around 3% and around 7% sequentially, respec- tively). After an impressive start in December, Uninor additions de- clined for the second month in a row and fell below the one million mark to around 0.7 million. S Tel Pvt. Ltd additions improved 37% sequentially to around 290,000.

Two new operators, Videocon Telecommunications Ltd and Etisalat DB, reported their sub- scribers for March, though their subscriber base is not yet material.

Tata Docomo, which had been leading industry additions for nearly two quarters in a row, add- ed around 2.8 million subscribers, followed by Bharat Sanchar Nig- am Ltd (BSNL) at around 2.7 mil- lion. Net additions for top opera- tors are equalizing as tariff plans across operators are converging.

Sharp competitive intensity over the past few quarters cou- pled with new launches has led to a material shift in subscriber mar- ket share for top operators.
Among the gainers, Tata Docomo's market share improved 230 basis points (bps) year-on-year (y-o-y) followed by Aircel Ltd at 160 bps y-o-y. Subscriber market share declined for Bharti (213 bps), BSNL (142 bps), and Reli- ance Communications (102 bps).

Two new operators, Videocon and Etisalat, launched their serv- ices in March. Videocon holds a pan-India unified access service (UAS) licence, while Etisalat holds UAS licence for 15 circles.

Videocon Telecom commenced operations in two circles of Tamil Nadu and Haryana, while Etisalat reported subscribers for nine cir- cles of Delhi, Maharashtra, Guja- rat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh (east) and Rajasthan.

Category A and B circles con- tinue to dominate subscriber additions, adding around 15.3 mil- lion subscribers, i.e., around 76% of industry additions. The indus- try wireline subscriber base con- tinues to fall with subscriber attri- tion of around 97,000 in March.

Wireline subscribers of incum- bents, BSNL and Mahanagar Tel- ecom Nigam Ltd continued to fall, while subscriber base of pri- vate operators (excluding MTS) grew at a 0.4-3.0% sequentially.