Subscribers with two SIM cards: The next battlefield for telecom firms

Half of the 390 million users may look at having one mobile number

The next big battle among telcos will be retaining subscribers now having two SIM cards, with half of the 390 million of them expected to be looking at having one mobile number.

According to estimates of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), over 70 per cent of the double-SIM users have a 4G smart phone, and in most cases have one slot on a 4G SIM (the other could be 2G). With SIM consolidation these customers are expected to see their average revenue per user (ARPU) per month go up as they move to just a single number (they earlier