Orissa has recorded a 5.14 per cent growth in its mobile subscriber base for the month of January 2010, higher than the national average of 3.78 per cent.
The cellular market in Orissa which is already cluttered with the presence of 11 mobile operators added 6.66 lakh new customers in January, taking the overall subscriber base to 13.6 million as against 12.9 million in December 2009.
The figure which includes the GSM as well as the CDMA subscribers are as per a report by the telecom regulator-Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
Industry experts said the growth in the Orissa circle has come on the back of the foray of new players in the market, introduction of innovative plans with competitive tariff and the low mobile teledensity in the circle.
The teledensity in Orissa stood at 28 per cent compared to the national average of 46.37 per cent by the end of January 2010.
“The rate of growth of mobile subscribers in the Orissa circle is set to double in the next couple of years. The state has a low mobile teledensity of 28 per cent and this presents a huge scope for penetration into the market. The entry of new operators has augured well for the customers who have now got more options”, said Sanjib Swain, chief operating officer (Orissa circle) of S Tel.
Commenting on the new mobile customer acquisitions in the Orissa circle, Akash Das, executive vice-president (Kolkata hub) of Uninor said, “We are excited since Orissa is an important market for us and we want to be a long-term player in this market. Our aim is to become the preferred GSM player by getting closest to the customer.”
While S Tel took its subscriber base in Orissa from 67675 in December 2009 to 153,949 in January 2010, Uninor raised its customer base from 44071 to 124,926 in the same period.
Idea Cellular which had rolled out its GSM services in the Orissa market in April 2009 scaled up up its subscriber base from 4.6 lakh to 4.8 lakh in the said period.
It is worth noting that though the new entrants into the state's cellular market space has taken the competition among the operators to a new level, the established players have still retained their strong foothold in the market.
Leading the pack among the cellular operators in the Orissa market in terms of new customer additions is Aircel whose subscriber base went up from 14.14 lakh in December 2009 to 15.35 lakh in January 2010, a significant growth of 8.55 per cent.Bharti Airtel, the market leader added 59,481 new subscribers in January, taking its subscriber base to 38.36 lakh.
Similarly, Tata Teleservices which includes Tata Indicom and Tata Docomo raised its customer base from 16.18 lakh to 17.06 lakh in the same period. In the said period, the mobile customer base of BSNL increased from 21.99 lakh to 22,87 lakh, that of Vodafone went up from 8.26 lakh to 8.93 lakh whereas the subscriber base of Reliance Communications rose from 25.43 lakh to 26 lakh, the figures being pointers to the fact that the entrenched operators still retained their market despite the entry of the new operators.
