Private cellcos fail to connect in Jan as limited mobility takes the call
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2003 06:55:16 AM ]
NEW DELHI: The limited mobility hype seems to have curbed the cellular industry’s growth last month. Private cellular operators added only 2.13 lakh subscribers last month, after adding about 6- 7 lakh in the last two months.
While the cellular industry added a total of 6.83 lakh subscribers last month, 4.7 lakh came from BSNL, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said.
The all-India subscriber figures have jumped to 11.2m in January from 10.5m in December last year, said COAI. While four metros added more than 1 lakh subscribers, category A circles of Maharashtra, Gujarat, AP, Karnataka and TN added 2.56 lakh and category B circles of Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, UP (West) and UP (East), Rajasthan, MP and West Bengal added another 2.71 lakh. In contrast, MTNL (the other public sector operator) lost 666 subscribers in Delhi and added 1,562 in Mumbai.
Most of the new users seem to favour BSNL connections and the story is the same in all non-metro circles. In AP, BSNL added 42,795 users, while in Haryana, it added 14,483.
The metro scene looks lacklustre thanks to BSNL adding big numbers in all other circles. Mumbai added the maximum users — more than 49,000, while Delhi’s user base grew by almost 34,000. Kolkatta added 18,813 users and Chennai 10,713.
economictimes.indiatimes.com |
