Vodafone user growth declines

New Delhi, July 14: New additions slowed for Vodafone Essar in June, according to figures released by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). The company’s monthly subscriber addition dipped to 2.36 million, from 2.53 million in May.

Among other global systems for mobile communications (GSM) players, Bharti Airtel and Aircel have maintained their subscriber base, the figures showed. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), which has been showing a decline in subscriber growth over the past several months, doubled the number of user addition in June.

While the state-owned telco added 0.453 million (4.53 lakh) GSM users in May, it grew by 0.896 million (8.96 lakh) in June. Even Idea Cellular has shown better growth in the subscriber base. In May, Idea’s GSM base grew by 1.3 million, but in June it added as many as 1.61 million subscribers.

The total GSM subscriber base as in the end of June was 315.7 million, and the monthly addition was 8.89 million.Bharti Airtel remained on top with 102.3 million GSM subscribers, followed by Vodafone at 76.4 million, BSNL 49 million, Idea 47 million, Aircel 21.7 million, Reliance Telecom 12.4 million (its latest data is not available), MTNL 4.29 million and Loop Mobile 2.3 million.

As for market share, Bharti led with 32.4%, Vodafone followed with 24.21% and BSNL came third with 15.54%. Idea’s market share was 14.9%, Aircel had 6.9%, Reliance Telecom 3.93%, MTNL 1.36% and Loop Mobile 0.73%.

Meanwhile, Aircel showed maximum subscriber growth of 5.38% over the previous month. Idea was next with a growth of 3.54%. Vodafone showed a growth of 3.2%, Bharti Airtel had 2.83%, BSNL 1.86%, Loop Mobile 2.16% and MTNL 0.87%.

–Agencies