Cell subscriber base up 6.3% in May

The cellular subscriber base grew by over 6 per cent in the month of May at 1.42 crore up from 1.33 crore in April this year. According to latest figures released by Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the net addition was 8.41 lakh in may 2003 compared to 6.47 lakh in the previous month.

Sunil Mittal owned Bharti Group has further improved its market share to 24.5 per cent during the month under consideration with a customer base of just less than 35 lakh. In Delhi, the cellular customer base went up to 19.67 lakh in may compared to 18.58 lakh in April. Bharti’s base stood at 10.08 lakh, Hutch notched up 6.59 lakh while MTNL witnessed a marginal decline in its subscriber base to 1.31 lakh in May from 1.36 lakh in April 2003.

In Mumbai, the subscriber base increased to 18.06 lakh in May from 17.31 lakh in April. The contest remained between BPL Mobile and Hutchison Max with their respective bases at 8.4 lakh and 7.3 lakh during May this year. MTNL’s base improved marginally to 1.66 lakh and that of Bharti’s to 2.72 lakh.