20 million mobile users added in Feb: TRAI

The wireless subscriber base increased by 3.6 per cent from its February user base of 564.02 million, the sectoral regulator said in a statement. With this addition, the total number of telephone subscribers (wireless and wireline) in India increased to 621.28 million at the end of March, 2010, from 600.98 million in February, 2010.

The number of users in the wireline segment remained unchanged at 36.96 million, as there was no net addition to fixed line subscriptions, which have been witnessed negative to flat growth for quite sometime now. With operators slashing tariffs further and new telecom players offering innovative schemes, the total telecom subscriber base registered a growth of 3.38 per cent in March.

The maximum new additions for operators came from the Circle B and C cities, indicating that markets in the metros are saturating. With this, the overall tele-density in India touched has 52.74, which indicates that every 53 out of every 100 people in India owns a telephone connection (wireless or wireline). The wireless tele-density stands at 49.60.

In the wireless segment, Vodafone was able to add the maximum number of new users to its network, followed by Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel. Vodafone trumped the country's largest operator, Bharti Airtel, by adding 3.6 million subscribers in March, taking its total number of users to 100 million. In comparison, Bharti Airtel added 3 million users to expand its subscriber base to 127.6 million, data showed.

However, Bharti Airtel remained the leader with a 21.84 per cent share of the market at the end of March, followed by Reliance Communications with a 17.53 per cent share and Vodafone with a 17.26 per cent share, TRAI said. While the subscriber base in the wireless segment increased from 564.02 million in February, the number of users in the wireline segment remained unchanged at 36.96 million, the statement added.

In the wireline segment, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd remained the biggest player, holding a 75.31 percent market share as on March 31, 2010, followed by state-run MTNL. The broadband subscriber base increased from 8.59 million in February to 8.75 million in March, 2010, a growth of around two per cent.