At a time when telecom market is adding 10-15 million subscribers per month, new entrants have finetuned their business strategies to gain subscriber market share.
While players like Tata DoCoMo and Uninor have already proved their mettle by adding on an average one to two million subscribers on a monthly basis, CDMA operators like Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL) and S- Tel are yet to catch up with the fast evolving telecom market.
The newest operator, Uninor, which launched its services in December 2009, is adding one million subscribers per month on an average with operations in only 8-9 circles, thus becoming only second to DoCoMo
in net adds among all the greenfield operators.
?Uninor entered amid tough competition, so we knew we would have to think fresh on almost everything we do. On pricing, we chose not to follow the trend of 1-paisa per second. We took industry leadership there. Instead of one-size-fits-all, our plans target those who talk longer or call more. For them, we provide the lowest cost plans,? said Rajiv Bawa, executive vice-president, corporate affairs, Uninor.
When Tata DoCoMo launched its services in June 2009, it chose to enter the market by introducing per-second billing. Since the launch of Tata DoCoMo, Tata Teleservices (TTSL) has experienced a boost. Before Tata DoCoMo?s launch, TTSL on an average added 0.6-0.8 million subscribers per month. After the launch, the number has increased to 2-3 million per month.
Virgin Mobile, which launched operations in India with CDMA services, has also crossed two million subscriber mark. This youth-focused brand also gained traction after its GSM launch this year. ?With the telecom industry subscriber addition at the rate of 10-15 million per month and almost 90% of this coming from GSM, our foray will widen our scope and addressable market size,? said company?s deputy CEO, Jamie Heywood. ?We have a target of adding five million subscribers in the period of three years,? said Heywood.