Finally Idea takes over Reliance to become India’s 3rd largest Telecom Operator [TRAI September 2013 report]

Idea Cellular aggressive marketing is paying off, as it take over Reliance Communication to become the third largest telecom operator in India, capturing 14.61% of India’s telecom market. According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India‘s (TRAI) telecom subscription data as on 3oth September 2013, Idea cellular added maximum number of mobile subscribers by around 1.2 million and on the losing side Reliance sheds around 10 million mobile subscribers, shifting it positing downwards.

Bharti Airtel still retained its top position with telecom market share of 21.21% followed by Vodafone India in second spot with 17.87% share and Idea cellular’s in third spot with 14.61% which is closely followed by Reliance Communication (RCOM) with 13.35% market share.

Seeing a slow negative growth in Indian telecom sector, the number of telephone subscribers in India decreased from 906.18 million at the end of August, 2013 to 899.86 million at the end of September 2013. Taking account on the wireless Segment (GSM, CDMA & FWP), total subscriber base decreased from 876.72 million in August 2013 to 870.58 million at the end of September 2013.

Private telecom operators hold 88.33% of the wireless market share (based on subscriber base) where as Govt run BSNL and MTNL  hold only 11.67% market share.

MNP reaches 102 Million

Mobile Number Portability requests increased from 100.20 million subscribers at the end of August 2013 to 102.49 million at the end of September 2013. In the month of September 2013 alone 2.29 million requests have been made for MNP. Maximum number of MNP request have been received in Karnataka by around 11.83 million, followed by Rajasthan with 10.15 million and Andhra Pradesh with 9.2 million.

Marginal Increase in Broadband sector

Indian Broadband sector is going through a tough phase as total Broadband subscriber base has increased marginally from 15.28 million at the end of August 2013 to 15.36 million at the end of September 2013. BSNL tops in broadband subscribers base with 9.98 million, followed by Bharti Airtel with 1.44 million subscribers and MTNL with 1.10 million subscribers.

Source –  TRAI