10.57 Million Mobile Users Opt For MNP In May: TRAI

By the end of May 2011, around 1.05 crore mobile subscribers had submitted their requests to different service providers for porting their mobile number. This number increased by 20.29 lakh from 85.41 lakh in April according to a release by TRAI. The most number of MNP requests came from the Gujarat state followed by Rajasthan.

The number of telephone subscribers in India grew at a rate of 1.53 per cent and increased to 874.68 million at the end of May 2011 from 861.48 million at the end of April 2011. The share of urban subscriber saw a decline while the share of rural subscribers increased and the overall Tele-density in India grew according to a release by TRAI.

Here is a table showing the wireless subscriber base of the top providers in May, 2011

An interesting fact was that out of the total 840.28 million subscribers, only 588.13 million subscribers were active subscribers on the date of peak visitor location register (VLR) for the month of May 2011 (although the data excludes the CDMA VLR figure of BSNL).

The proportion of VLR subscribers was approximately 69.99 per cent of the total wireless subscriber base reported by the service providers (a drop from 70.53 per cent recorded in April 2011). Telecom operator Idea lead the tally with 92.33 per cent of VLR subscribers as opposed to total number of subscribers, followed by Bharti with 89.10 per cent; MTNL was at the bottom with 34.39 per cent.

The wireless segment's (GSM, CDMA, FWP) total subscriber base increased to 840.28 million at the end of May 2011 from 826.93 million in April 2011, registering a growth of 1.61 per cent. Wireless subscription in rural areas grew 2.15 per cent while the urban subscription grew 1.34 per cent.

Private operators dominated the wireless market with 88.30 per cent market share. Bharti ruled the market during the month of May 2011 with more than 16.4 crore subscribers (19.88 per cent); Reliance came second followed closely by Vodafone. Idea, Tata and Aircel and public service undertaking (PSU) BSNL were the other big players.

Unlike the wireless segment, the wire-line segment's subscriber base saw a decline from 34.55 million in April 2011 to 34.40 million at the end of May 2011, clearly showing a shift from wire-line to the wireless. The share of urban subscribers increased while the share of rural subscribers declined.

The wire-line segment was completely dominated by PSU operators in the month of May, 2011 with 82.29 per cent market share. BSNL dominated the market with more than 2.5 crore subscribers (72.27 per cent) while MTNL came second followed closely by Bharti. Tata and Reliance were the other big players.

Also the total broadband subscriber base increased to 12.12 million in May 2011 from 12.01 million in April 2011, showing a growth of 0.92 per cent.

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