The total mobile telephone user base declined by 0.70 per cent in September, the first fall in past five months, following large scale disconnections by certain operators.
Separately, Reliance Communications, the country’s fourth largest operator, has deactivated 10 million users.
“RCom has deactivated the services of around 10 million unprofitable, low-end subscribers at the lowest end of the ARPU range, who had not used their phones for over two months. This is in line with the industry practice and has no impact on customer experience or (the company’s) revenues,” a company spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement.
“We continue to focus on improving the contribution from profitable minutes on our network,” he added.
Multiple reasons
RCom, which straddles both CDMA and GSM technologies, had about 116 million users on its network as of September 30. Almost all private operators had resorted to deactivation of non-paying customers, stepping away from their earlier customer acquisition spree.
There are multiple reasons for mobile companies resorting to disconnection of inactive subscribers. For one, spectrum allocation rules have changed from subscriber-linked criteria to auction. Earlier, operators could get more spectrum if they amassed more subscribers. But now with auction being the preferred allocation method, there is no incentive for operators to bear the cost of offering services to someone who does not even pay Rs 10 a month.
The other major reason is shortage in phone numbers after the Department of Telecommunications tightened the allocation criteria in February 2011. The Department now gives numbers based on active users instead of the total user base.
Private operators hold 88.33 per cent of total wireless market share, with the remaining held by State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd.
According to data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the country’s total wireless subscriber base fell to 870.58 million as of September-end from 876.72 million a month ago. The share of urban wireless users fell to 59.75 per cent (from 59.98 per cent), while that of rural wireless subscribers rose to 40.25 per cent (40.02 per cent).
While RCom topped the charts with the company losing more than 10 million subscribers in September, MTNL 232,273, BSNL lost 74,566, while Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd lost 12,690 users in September.
India’s overall wireless tele-density, or telephones per 100 people, fell to 70.63 from 71.21 of previous month. The active wireless subscribers stood at 738.89 million or 84.87 per cent of total subscribers, it added.
The country’s total number of telephone users (including mobile and fixedline) also posted a 0.70 per cent monthly fall. It fell to 899.86 million as September-end from 906.18 million recorded during the previous month, according to the data.
The share of urban users also fell to 60.36 per cent (from 60.57 per cent), whereas share of rural subscribers rose to 39.64 per cent (from 39.43 per cent). The overall teledensity declined to 73.01 (from 73.60) during the month under review.
Number portability
The mobile number portability requests rose to 102.49 million (from 100.20 million) as of date, with 2.29 million requests coming in September itself. Broadband subscription rose 15.36 million in September 2013 from 15.28 million in August 2013.