Indian Mobile Subscriber base reaches 893.84 Million [Dec 11]

9.47 Million new mobile subscribers were added in December 2011 taking the total tally to 893.84 million as on December 2011. December also registered the highest growth rate since March last year. Past 6-8 months, there had been a constant slide in the Mobile subscriber growth rate.

Indian mobile subscriber addition since March 2011

Highlights of Telecom Subscription Data as on Dec 31st 2011

• Total Telecom Subscribers in India stand at 926.53 million, with Mobile base at 893.84 & wire line base of 32.69 million
• 4.93 million Urban subscribers were added as compared to 4.54 mln from rural area.
• Urban Teledensity reached 161 percent, while rural teledensity stands at 36.56.
• 3.4 Mln subscribers opted for Mobile Number Portability in December 2011 alone, taking the total tally to 29.24 Million.
• Out of total 893.84 Mln subscribers, active subscriber tally stands at 646.77 Mln. This percentage has risen drastically to about 73 percent, which was around 55% an year back.

Telecom Operator Net Additions [December 2011]

Idea Cellular has been the biggest beneficiary of MNP, as it has been consistently adding over 20% of all subscribers additions in last few months. In December 2011, it added over quarter of all net additions (2.38 Million). Even Uninor has been doing quite well – It added 22% of all subscribers (2.12 Million) followed by Bharti (10.1%), Reliance (10.0%) and Vodafone (9.6%).

Tata had lost significant subscriber base last month, probably due to MNP and even this month it has managed to add only 1.1% of all subscribers.

Telecom Operator Market Share [December 2011]

Bharti still reigns supreme with 19.65% of total Indian Market Share, followed by Reliance (16.79%) and Vodafone (16.53%). Idea, thanks to its stellar performance is now 4th with 11.90% of total Indian Mobile Subscriber Market Share.

Broadband Subscriber Growth

Total Broadband subscriber base has increased from 13.13 million at the end of November 2011 to 13.30 million at the end of December 2011, there by showing a monthly growth of 1.30%. Yearly growth in broadband subscribers is 21.88% during the last one year (Dec 10 to Dec 11).

At the start of last year, I was quite sure that India will reach 1 Billion Telecom Subscriber base by end of the year, but it has fallen short by a very large margin. To be honest, I had not expected such a sudden slow-down in mobile subscriber growth. Given the situation now, I think it will probably be by end of next year that we should see that figure…

What do you think?

[Source: TRAI December report]