Other BrandsTRAI: Mobile phone subscriptions in India saw a dip this April

TRAI: Mobile phone subscriptions in India saw a dip this April

Information that has just been released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has brought forth an alarming fact for mobile service providers in the country. According to its findings, the total number of wireless subscribers has taken a dip from 867.80 million in March 2013 to 867.02 million at the end of April 2013. This makes the monthly growth rate sit at -0.09% at the moment. Disconnections by some service providers is being seen as the prime reason for this decline.

These newly released numbers also recite another story. As revealed by TRAI, requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) from customers have also skyrocketed, indicating that more number of people are migrating towards different networks for many reasons. The number of MNP consumers was resting at 89.70 million at the end of March, but it touched the 91.73 million mark at the end of April 2013. In one month alone, about 2.03 million MNP requests have come forth in India.

Figures 1

Moreover, the urban-rural gap slowly but steadily seems to be narrowing, seeing as although the city-based wireless subscriber base has been reduced from 60.53% to 60.11%, the villages have seen a growth from 39.47% to 39.89% in this department. If exact numbers are to be seen, then wireless subscriptions in urban areas decreased from 525.30 million in March 2013 to 521.18 million at the end of April 2013. On the other hand, rural areas saw the figures increase from 342.50 million to 345.85 million during the same period.

Figures 2

The highest number of market share among all the network providers is still occupied by Vodafone, whereas Idea, with its large grasp on the rural population, comes in second. The third and fourth spots are occupied by Reliance and Airtel, respectively. These private operators take up 88.02% of the wireless market share in terms of subscriber base. And as far as public companies like BSNL, MTNL and two other PSUs are concerned, they only grab hold of a 11.98% chunk in this country.

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