Aook at telecom trends across circles hows steady growth in the wireless egment during the period June 2006 to June 2007, driven by significant subscriber additions in Category B and C circles. The wireline segment meanwhile showed an overall decline, with almost all circles clocking up negative growth except the metros. The following are the key findings of a recent tele.net survey…
Wireless segment
Wireless subscriber growth varied widely from state to state during the period June 2006 to June 2007. The highest growth was registered in the Haryana circle and the lowest in Mumbai.
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The all-India wireless subscriber base (including WLL-FWT) increased by approximately 62 per cent, from 109.26 million subscribers to 176.95 million.
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The metro circles of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata witnessed significantly slow growth rates of around 33 per cent, 20.5 per cent, 46.8 per cent and 36.81 per cent respectively.
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The growth in most of the Category A circles hovered close to the all-India average with the majority of them growing at a fast rate.
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The Category B circles registered the highest growth rate overall. All these circles made subscriber additions at a steady pace.
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Most of the Category C circles grew at healthy rates. However, Bihar and Orissa are showing signs of slowing down.
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The newly demarcated circles displayed much the same trend as the others, albeit over a one-month period. Over the period May-June 2007, Jharkhand, the recently split Northeast-I and NortheastII, and Uttaranchal all registered positive wireless subscriber additions.
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Northeast-I clocked in the highest number of subscriber additions.
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Chhattisgarh was the only circle to witness a decline in subscribers during this period. Its user base fell by 1,672.Wireline segment The wireline subscriber base declined during the period June 2006 to June 2007.
Only six of the 23 circles ?? Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Kerala and the Northeast ?? actually witnessed subscriber additions. While the highest growth was registered in the Chennai circle, the highest decline took place in Assam.
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The all-India wireline subscriber base decreased by approximately 2.5 per cent from 40 million to 39 million during the period under review..
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Compared to the Category A, B and C circles, the metro circles experienced some growth in wireline subscribers.
While Delhi and Mumbai registered growth rates of 7.64 per cent and 0.06 per cent respectively, the Chennai and Kolkata user base increased by 9.8 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively.
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All the Category A circles witnessed a decline in their wireline subscriber base.
While Andhra Pradesh registered the highest rate of decline, Karnataka registered the lowest. Compared to the allIndia average, the majority of Category A circles saw their wireline subscriber bases decline at a faster pace.
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Except for Kerala, all the Category B circles clocked up negative growth rates in this segment. Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh experienced an especially significant amount of churn.
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Category C circles also displayed a similar trend. Already possessing relatively smaller subscriber bases, new users in these circles seem to have opted for wireless telephony.
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During the period May-June 2007, the new circles all witnessed a decrease in their subscriber base.
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While Jharkhand registered the highest absolute decrease, Northeast-I recorded the lowest absolute decrease.
