Top three players drive mobile growth in India
India's mobile subscriber base rose to 840.28 million as of the end of May, with the top three operators adding around 2.5 million users each, according to the latest figures from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Meanwhile in the fixed-line space the number of connections fell slightly to 34.4 million as the state-owned incumbents bled customers. There was some growth from the private players though, led by Tata and Bharti Airtel.
Mobile market leader Bharti Airtel added 2.45 million new users in May to take its total customer base to 167.07 million and give it a total market share of close to 20%. However, second-placed Reliance snapped up a bigger share of new customers: 18.75% to Bharti's 18.35%. Reliance's 141.16 million-strong customer base, including CDMA and GSM connections, give it a 16.8% share of India's mobile market. Third-placed Vodafone consolidated its position with 2.45 million net additions in May.
While the majority of India's mobile operators are enjoying strong customer growth, the country's state-owned operators continue to have a difficult time. BSNL claimed an 11.05% share of the total market as of the end of May, down slightly from the 11.44% it recorded just under a year ago. The operator added 823,051 customers in May, or just 6.16% of total new additions.
By contrast, relative newcomer Uninor added 1.14 million customers in May, taking its total market share to 3.02% up from less than 1% at the end of June 2010. MTNL, which operates in Delhi and Mumbai only, has also seen its share slide in the past 11 months. It ended May 2011 with 0.65% of the market, down from 0.82%. BSNL's troubles stem in part from the difficulties it faced expanding its network, making it hard for the telco to keep up with demand. On Monday it made its latest move to rectify that by inviting equipment vendors to submit bids to supply 14.37 million new lines. The company will employ an online auction method to award the contract in a bid to preempt any concerns over transparency and avoid a repeat performance of recent failed tenders; BSNL cancelled a multi-billion-dollar contract for 93 million lines last year after its procurement methods were questioned.
BSNL still claims the lion's share of India's relatively small fixed-line market, but its influence there is also dwindling. The telco lost close to 165,000 fixed-line customers in May, while MTNL lost over 13,000, as the whole market contracted. However, there was some growth for the private players. Tata added 11,534 fixed connections and Bharti 10,170, taking their total market shares to 3.79% and 9.64% respectively. BSNL's market share stands at 72.27%, followed by MTNL with 10.02%
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