Private WLL firms user base at 8.06 mn

The CDMA-based mobile subscriber base of private operators touched 80.68 lakh (8.06 million), adding 343,000 customers in June this year.

As per the latest subscription figures released by the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India, the gross additions of CDMA-based mobile phones was pegged at 343,000 in June with Reliance cornering 72.97 lakh (7.29 million) digital mobile phones.

The overall telephony base of all these operators stood at 1.1 crore (11 million) of which 12.52 lakh (1.25 million) was wireline, 16.86 lakh (1.68 million) was WLL (fixed) and the rest were digital mobile users.

Reliance Infocomm, which operates its CDMA telephony services across 20 circles including Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra, hiked its total subscriber base to 79.79 lakh (7.97 million) in June, adding 351,000 customers.

During the month, Tata Teleservices' base stood at 20.28 lakh (2.02 million) users. Of this, 709,000 were fully mobile users, 931,000 were WLL (F) users and the remaining wireline users.

The subscriber base of Bharti Telenet, which operates in Chennai, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, was at 703,000 during June 2004. Bharti does not offer CDMA-based fully mobile service.

The total subscriber base of HFCL Infotel in Punjab and Shyam Telelink in Rajashan stood at 172,000 and 123,000, respectively.

In Delhi, the cellular subscriber base was up by 1.29 per cent to 33.68 lakh (3.36 million), the least among all metros, while in Mumbai, the increase was 2.25 per cent at 30.52 lakh (3.05 million).

Chennai touched a cellular subscriber base of 11.45 lakh (1.14 million) showing a growth of 5.02 per cent while Kolkata showed the highest growth of 5.72 per cent at 10.53 lakh (1.05 million).

The cellular subscriber base in metros rose by 2.64 per cent in June to touch 86.19 lakh (8.61 million).
 
In circle A comprising Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the subscriber base was up at over 1 crore (10 million), an increase of 2.99 per cent.