The enormous growth in the lower circles like ‘B’ and ‘C’ has pushed up the number of subscribers for the Indian telecom operators. The mobile subscriber base in the ‘C’ circle category has soared by 90% on a year-on-year basis, reflecting continued traction witnessed by service providers in the rural areas. The metros, which are fast approaching saturation point, grew at 33.6% Y-O-Y.
The ‘A’ circle grew at a rate of 65%, while the ‘B’ circle, another growth engine for telecom operators, clocked nearly 80% growth Y-O-Y. Though the ‘A’ circle category has been showing outstanding growth over the past several months, the penetration rate in these circles still stands at fewer than 20%, reflecting as yet good scope for growth, a study from Angel Broking said. C circles include HP, Bihar, Assam, NE and J&K. Sushil Sharma, analyst at Batlivala & Karani Securities, says, ?Initially, the average revenue per user (ARPU), from the lower circles will be less. However, the market share in terms of number of subscribers is the first target of the operators. The companies provide attractive plans to the customers, like life time incoming calls free, in the under penetrated areas.?
Sanjay Gupta, chief marketing officer, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel said, ?Our network expansion plan is in place and we are aggressively rolling out in new areas while strengthening existing regions. In FY08, we plan to have over 65,000 cell sites that cover more than 70% of India?s population.? Even though Bharti has a countrywide presence, Vodafone does not have any prominent presence in C circles. At the end of July 2007, India had a total of 189 million subscribers.