Bharti edges out BPL Mobile in subscriber base

By Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI, DEC 23. Bharti Cellular in Delhi has dislodged BPL Mobile in Mumbai from the top slot among cellular companies for the first time since this sector was opened up five years ago. Bharti had been running BPL close for the past couple of months, but it gained 10,000 customers to touch 2.60 lakh subscribers as against 2.55 lakh subscribers loyal to BPL.

Overall, the cellular scene saw continuation of robust growth rates since the telecom bail out package was implemented by the Government.

The total number of subscribers at the end of November was close to breaching the three-million mark with the four metros accounting for more than one-third of cellular phone service subscribers.

The gain in November alone for the cellular industry was close to two lakh subscribers.

Despite the lead taken by Bharti, Mumbai remained the largest market for cellular phones while Delhi was in the second place. The gulf between Chennai and Calcutta continued with the former remaining ahead by a comfortable margin.

In both the cities, the customer base of all the four companies continued to hover below the one lakh mark whereas in Mumbai and Delhi, three out of four companies have more than two lakh subscribers apiece.There were no surprises in the A category circles comprising the three southern States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and two western States of Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Maharashtra occupied the top slot followed by Gujarat, TN and Karnataka.

As is the case with parameters for most IT/communication services such as the number of Internet connections, Andhra Pradesh was the last among the three major southern States.

Birla AT & T (Maharashtra) joined BPL Cellular (Maharashtra) and Fascel (Gujarat) in the one-lakh subscriber club. BPL Cellular and Aircel in Tamil Nadu and Spice Comm from Karnataka are also poised for the honours. The total subscriber base in these States is about to breach the one million mark.

In the B category circle, Kerala continued to be alone in the two lakh plus category and no other State including the more developed Punjab or the larger Madhya Pradesh is not in a position to challenge its suzerainty.

However, a large number of companies including Escotel and BPL cellular (Both Kerala) have crossed the one lakh mark. However, in case of Spice Comm (Punjab) and Escotel (U.P. - West) this was because there is no second operator in these States.

Koshika in U.P. (East) is expected to cross the one-lakh mark this month. Surprisingly, the relatively less developed U.P. (East) continued to have more customers than the more prosperous States such as Punjab, Haryana and U.P. (West).

The cellular divide continued as was evident from the subscriber base in C category States such as Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Assam and the North-East.

Assam has barely managed to cross the 10,000 mark while the North East and Himachal Pradesh have less than 10,000 subscribers each. Bihar has 43,000 cell phone users and Orissa has 17,466.

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