Indian Telecom Story (Part VI): What downturn? The party continues...

TRAI's report  dated 20th February 2009 has the following updates on the Indian Telecom market.

• Subscribers base crosses 400 million
  
• 15.41 million wireless subscribers added in January 2009
  
• 5.65 million subscribers in Broadband segment
  
• Teledensity reaches 34.50% mark!
  

Interestingly, 15.41 million new mobile subscribers takes the mobile connectivity number to 362.30 million. Comin on the back of a downturn and economic meltdown, the subscriber additions dont show any slow down as they beat the sub-adds in December 2008 (10.81 Million) by almost 50%. While the stock indices ove

r the world are flatering, here is one index that is still going and growing strong. Broadband penetration statistics pale in comparison as it registered an increase of .2 million over a December base of 5.45 million in January (3.6% growth).

The other significant bit in here is the launch of Reliance GSM services.  http://technologyandtelecom.blogspot.com/2009/02/ada-reliance-telecom-exercising-muscle.html. 

The link in here is an earlier post on how the competitive scene was heating up between Reliance and Bharti with the launch of Reliance GSM services in the country. Reliance muscled its way in January 2009 adding 4.95 million subscribers compared to Bharti Airtel's 2.73 million subscriber additions and Vodafone's 2.4 million subscriber additions. Certainly Reliance got a super start and has got it 4.95 million subscribers into its network in the first month of operation. At this rate, Reliance will beat Vodafone's no 2 market share position by March 2009. There is no surprise that Airtel feels threatened!

Already there is a renewed push to register more and more users into the Post paid services. (By Vodafone). The idea here is by reducing call, SMS, data browsing, VAS and STD charges on Post Paid, customers are lured to Post paid connections which is supposed more sticky and loyal than the Pre Paid option.

It is going to be an interesting battle for the top honours in Indian Telecom market. Watch this space.