Cell users cross 5 million mark

Our eFE Bureau in New Delhi

The rate of growth of the cellular subscriber base in October has fallen by 20 per cent. While about 260,000 subscribers were added in September, only about 207,000 subscribers were added in October. However, there was a silver lining in the cloud. The industry crossed the 5 million landmark in October. As per the latest data released by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), total subscribers at end-October numbered 5.01 million.

The average addition of subscribers in the last few months has been over 250,000. Though the COAI has not been able to zero in on the precise reason for the dip, it felt that the “discounting spree” of the service providers could be the reason. “Maybe, customers are waiting and watching...expecting a better deal to emerge in the near future,” COAI’s director general T V Ramachandran said.

He also said that cellular operators were not pushing their business as aggressively as they could given the uncertainty surrounding the Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) based limited mobility phones, which is currently being debated in the courts.

The metro cellular population, at 1.96 million, continued to account for about 40 per cent of the total cellular market. Over 80,000 subscribers were added in October in the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai. Mumbai added the largest number of subscribers in the metro cities at 38,549 to have a total mobile population of 748,967.