Government-owned BSNL has lost close to 7 lakh wireless customers in the month of April, according to the latest subscription data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). Though BSNL has been losing market share over the last several months, this is the first time that its customer additions have fallen into the red.
BSNL’s monthly subscriber additions stood at in the red at 7.18 lakh during April, out of its total base of 9.77 crore. It had 10.62 per cent market share against 11.13 per cent during April 2011.
According to Ankita Somany, telecom analyst at Angel Broking, incumbent players have seen increasing subscriber additions over the last two months, primarily because users want to switch to reliable service providers after the cancellation of 2G licences of various telecom players. However, BSNL does not seem to reap the benefits of the Supreme Court’s verdict.
Among the new players, STel and DB Etisalat, which have stated their intentions to shut down operations post cancellation of 2G licences, have not been adding any subscriber since February. Videocon added merely one lakh subscribers and, according to media reports, is going to wind up its services in all circles, excluding those having over 5 lakh customers.
As per Trai data, private operators hold 88.76 per cent share of the wireless market, where as BSNL and MTNL hold only 11.24 per cent. Mobile number portability requests increased from 4.18 crore subscribers at the end of March to 4.5 crore at the end of April.
One of BSNL’s main problems is the number of inactive subscribers in its network. Over 54 per cent of the operator’s customers are inactive. On the other hand, leading incumbents Idea, Airtel and Vodafone have only 7 per cent, 9 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively. The active wireless subscribers in April were 68.65 crore, 74.55 per cent of the total subscribers.
http://wrd.mydigitalfc.com/news/bsnl-sees-7-lakh-users-walking-out-coverage-037
BSNL’s monthly subscriber additions stood at in the red at 7.18 lakh during April, out of its total base of 9.77 crore. It had 10.62 per cent market share against 11.13 per cent during April 2011.
According to Ankita Somany, telecom analyst at Angel Broking, incumbent players have seen increasing subscriber additions over the last two months, primarily because users want to switch to reliable service providers after the cancellation of 2G licences of various telecom players. However, BSNL does not seem to reap the benefits of the Supreme Court’s verdict.
Among the new players, STel and DB Etisalat, which have stated their intentions to shut down operations post cancellation of 2G licences, have not been adding any subscriber since February. Videocon added merely one lakh subscribers and, according to media reports, is going to wind up its services in all circles, excluding those having over 5 lakh customers.
As per Trai data, private operators hold 88.76 per cent share of the wireless market, where as BSNL and MTNL hold only 11.24 per cent. Mobile number portability requests increased from 4.18 crore subscribers at the end of March to 4.5 crore at the end of April.
One of BSNL’s main problems is the number of inactive subscribers in its network. Over 54 per cent of the operator’s customers are inactive. On the other hand, leading incumbents Idea, Airtel and Vodafone have only 7 per cent, 9 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively. The active wireless subscribers in April were 68.65 crore, 74.55 per cent of the total subscribers.
http://wrd.mydigitalfc.com/news/bsnl-sees-7-lakh-users-walking-out-coverage-037