2G: Operators continue to add users, despite uncertainty

New Delhi: New telecom operators, led by Uninor and Sistema Shyam (MTS India), continue to add new subscribers in February notwithstanding the uncertain environment after the Supreme Court judgement canceling 122 2G licences.

Uninor, a joint venture between Unitech and Norway-based Telenor, registered the maximum growth of 6.04 per cent in additions as it added 2.34 million users in the month. Its total user base was at 41.14 million.

According to the GSM users data released by Cellular Operators of India on Wednesday, all operators added 8.77 million new users in February to take the country's GSM user base to 656.86 million.

In January, GSM operators had added 8.44 million new users taking the total to 648.08 million.

Another new operator Videocon, which added 0.34 million new subscribers, posted the second highest growth rate of 5.97 per cent in February. The user base of Videocon stood at 6.19 million.

CDMA player MTS India said it added 0.23 million new customers, taking its user base to 15.43 million.

Idea Cellular added maximum number of users at 2.58 million taking its subscriber base to 110.70 million. However, state-run BSNL failed to add even a single new subscriber for the month. Its user base stood at 93.42 million.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel added 1.82 users as its total subscriber base was at 178.77 million. It had a market share of 27.22 per cent.

Vodafone Essar, with a 22.75 per cent market share, added 0.83 million new subscribers during the month, taking its subscriber base to 149.44 million in February.

Aircel added 0.79 million customers taking its subscriber base to 63.25 million, whereas MTNL added 38,757 new users taking its base to 5.53 million in February.

Both Etisalat and Stel, which have expressed their intentions to exit business after their licenses were cancelled by the Supreme Court, did not add any new user.

Circle-wise, the highest number of additions were in Maharashtra which saw 1 million new users being added in February.

GSM is the leading standard for mobile telephony systems in the world. The other technology platform on which telcos offer services is CDMA, where players such as Tata Teleservices (TTSL), RCom and Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd (SSTL) are the main operators.

TTSL and RCom offer both GSM as well as CDMA services.