Mobile subscriber base touches 148.72-million mark in January

Mobile subscriber base (GSM + CDMA) touched 148.72 million-mark in January, up 4.67% compared to 142.08 million in December, according to the figures released by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and the Association of Unified Service Providers of India (Auspi) on Friday.

In the GSM space, market leader Bharti Airtel continues to maintain the leadership position with a 30.54% market share with 33.73 million subscribers. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) held the second position with 24.42 million subscriber base, closely followed by Hutchison Essar with a user base of 24.41 million. In the CDMA space Reliance Communications Ltd (RCL) held 71.79% market share having a subscriber base of 27.51 million. The second largest operator in this category Tata Teleservices Ltd maintained a market share of 27.94% with a subscriber base of 10.71 million during the month.

“The present growth momentum in the Indian GSM industry is expected to continue in the months to come,” said T V Ramachandran, director general, COAI. The subscriber base of GSM phones in metros grew by 2.8% over the previous month. Mumbai recorded the highest growth of 3.8% in this category during this period.