Mobile Number Portability (MNP) is on the rise among Indian users. According to latest TRAI report , MNP requests increased from 69.78 million subscribers at the end of September 2012 to 75.14 million at the end of October 2012, a 5.36 million increase. Karnataka accounted for highest (9.37 million) MNP request followed by Rajasthan (7.15 million) and Andhra Pradesh (7.02million). If TRAI and DOT can implement the One Nation – Full Mobile Number Portability as proposed in The National Telecom Policy 2012, then we can see much more acceptance for MNP among the masses.
As telecom operators in India further clean up their subscribers base by cutting down all inactive mobile numbers, overall Mobile (GSM+CDMA) subscribers in India further declined from 906.62 million in September 2012 to 904.23 million at the end of October 2012, registering a monthly negative growth of -0.26%.
Tata Teleservices reported the highest loss with decrease in 1,607,347 mobile subscribers, followed by Uninor with decrease in 1,106,438 mobile subscribers and Reliance communication with decrease in 844,735 mobile subscribers. Other telecom operators Sistema which operates under MTS brand, Videocon and Loop also reported decline in mobile subscribers during October 2012. On the gaining side Bharti Airtel added maximum number of mobile subscribers with 491,570 connection followed by Vodafone India with 480,336 subscribers and Govt run BSNL with 357,148 subscribers.
With added subscriber base, Bharti Airtel retained its top position with 20.62% market share followed by Vodafone taking the second spot with 16.94% share and Reliance in the third place with 14.82% share. Private operators hold 88.36% of the wireless market share in India (based on subscriber base) where as BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU operators hold only 11.64% market share. State Owned BSNL has been doing well with 11.06% market share, becoming the 5th largest telecom operator in India.
While checking telecom circle wise Metro (Metros indicate data for Delhi, Mumbai & Kolkata) show the highest reduction and highest rate of decline in the wireless sector from September 2012 to October 2012.
Wireline subscriber base continue to decline, this time from 31.08 million at the end of September 2012 to 30.95 Million at the end of October 2012 registering a net reduction in wireline subscriber base of 0.14 million.
Broadband subscriber base has increased from 14.68 million at the end of September 2012 to 14.81 million at the end of October 2012, registering a monthly growth of 0.89%. There are 157 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who are providing broadband services in the country. BSNL topping the chart with 9.69 million broadband subscribers (65.4 % market share) followed by Bharti Airtel with 1.39 million subscribers (9.4%) and MTNL with 1.08 million subscribers (7.3%). Users who access the internet through Wi-Fi hotspots have been excluded from Broadband Subscriber base figures for the month of July 2012 and onwards.
Read the complete TRAI telecom report highlighting the Telecom Subscription Data as on 31st October 2012 here.