The number of active mobile phone subscribers of the country crossed the 11-crore mark for the first time in September as the mobile operators added more than 13 lakh new subscribers in the month. Among the six companies Robi and Citycell witnessed decline in subscriber number while four others, Grameenphone, Banglalink, Airtel and Teletalk, continued to acquire new subscribers.
The six companies, however, added less number of subscribers in September compared to previous two months as in August the total addition in subscriber number was 24 lakh and in July it was 19 lakh.
Officials of the mobile companies said the customers were enthusiastic about the newly-launched 3G service but as it could not be delivered nationwide, the growth rate slowed down in September.
The companies witnessed a sharp fall in the business for three months from October to December last year after the government had imposed a number of new rules regarding subscriber identity module (SIM) registration.
The leading mobile phone operator GP added more than 8 lakh new subscribers in September taking the total subscriber base to 4.60 crore from 4.52 crore in August.
Banglalink added 4 lakh new subscribers in the month taking the total subscribers base to 2.81 crore.
Robi lost 1.67 lakh subscribers in September after adding the highest number of subscribers (12 lakh) is August. The total subscriber base of Robi reached to 2.48 crore in the month which was 2.49 crore in August.
Citycell, the only CDMA operator, continued to lose its subscribers in September as the company lost 23,000 subscribers in the month. The total subscribers of Citycell stand at 1.33 lakh.
Airtel added 64,000 new subscribers in September taking the total subscriber base to 8 lakh and state-owned Teletalk added more than 22,000 new subscribers in the month reaching to total of 2.34 lakh.
-With New Age input
