GSM services are preferred to CDMA players post number portability era, telecom lobby COAI claimed today.
"In the recent data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), it is evident that the GSM players are the preferred option selected by the cellular subscribers to CDMA," GSM industry association COAI said in a statement.
A GSM mobile has a SIM card, which provides more functionality and is convenient. A CDMA phone does not have a SIM card, and therefore you have to stick to the phone you have been provided with.
In addition, the prediction made by COAI that MNP would not be a 'game changer' for the industry, is also being fulfilled as fewer than five million subscribers (less than 1% of the total subscribers) have opted to change their service providers.
"It is a worldwide trend that consumers of mobile services prefer GSM to CDMA. GSM networks are hailed for their better network quality, wide selection of valued added services and a variety of handsets and open networking systems," COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews said.
GSM players includes Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, BSNL and CDMA player includes Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices.
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The net addition of users made by Vodafone-Essar since the start of the MNP service is 1.92 lakh, Idea Cellular (1.5 lakh) and Bharti Airtel (1.48 lakh).
On the other hand, RCom lost 3.06 lakh customers, TTSL lost 39,389 subscribers and MTNL lost 11,052 users.
In January this year Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched the nation wide MNP services, which allow the users to change his service provider while retaining the number.
As per the data reported by the service providers to Trai, by the end of February 2011, about 38.33 lakh subscribers have submitted their requests to different service providers for porting (shifting) their mobile number.