Date:10/08/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/08/10/stories/2005081002170400.htm

Back Mobile subscription on the rise, 2.45 m new users in July

Our Bureau

New Delhi , Aug. 9

MOBILE growth rate in the country has gone through the roof with an unprecedented 2.45 million new users in July.

The growth is 45 per cent higher compared to the previous months of the calendar year.

While operators based on GSM technology added close to 1.95 million new users, the CDMA players saw an increase of 5.35 million in their user base. This takes the total subscriber base to 59.83 million users.

The biggest gainer during July was Bharti with 5.3 lakh new users followed by state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Reliance Infocomm with 4.9 lakh users each. Bharti is also the largest operator in the country with 12.78 million subscribers, followed by Reliance Infocommm with nearly 12 million subscribers.

In terms of circles, Uttar Pradesh saw the highest number of additions with over 2 lakh new users in July followed by Karnataka with 1.5 lakh new subscribers. Delhi continues to be the leading cellular market with 4.44 million subscribers accounting for 9.47 per cent of the total market, closely followed by Mumbai with 4.25 million subscribers.

Fixed line telephones grew by 2.7 lakh, taking the total to 46.90 million telephones. The gross subscriber base consisting of fixed as well as mobile phones touched 107 million taking the tele-density to 9.86.

Analysts said the steep cut in mobile STD rates announced last week and the availability of cheap mobile handsets would lead to more growth in August. The growth rate in July comes as a relief to the Government, which has set a target of 250 million users by 2007 - a goal that will require an addition of 4 million new users every month.