24 lakh new users added in Aug ahead of 3G launch
The number of subscribers of the country’s mobile phone companies neared 11 crore in August as the operators added more than 24 lakh new subscribers in the month.
The figure reached 10.93 crore in August as the upward trend in the SIM sales since the beginning of the year continued. 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.
In August Grameenphone took its subscribers’ base to 4.52 crore by adding more than 6 lakh subscribers in the month.
The subscribers’ base of Banglalink swelled to 2.76 crore in August from 2.73 crore in the previous month as the company added more than 3 lakh new subscribers in the month.
Robi added the highest number of subscribers in August and took the total number of its subscribers to 2.49 crore. It added 12.26 lakh users in the month after adding 9 lakh in the previous month.
Airtel added 72,000 subscribers in August, taking its total subscribers to 7.96 lakh and state-owned Teletalk added more than 15,000 subscribers in the month, taking its users’ base to 2.11 lakh.
Citycell continued to lose users as the company lost 23,000 subscribers in the month.
The number of active mobile phone users crossed the 10-crore mark for the first time in April as five mobile phone operators, except Citycell, added 13.34 lakh subscribers in the month.
Earlier in September 2012, the number of total mobile phone users had hit the 9.85-crore mark before the regulators tightened the SIM registration process.
Officials of the mobile phone companies said the industry was witnessing the upward trend as the phone companies managed to redesign their SIM registration channels and the customers were hopeful about 3G service launch.
They said the BTRC’s restrictions regarding the SIM registration process was the key reason for the decline late last year, but the companies recovered through making convincing offers to the subscribers.
They said the sales of SIMs rose ahead of the 3G service launch, a fast data communication solution, by the four mobile operators as all private sector operators but Citycell got 3G licences in September and are scheduled to launch the services this month.
-With New Age input
