India Telecoms Update - Dec09

India Telecoms Update - Dec09 

•  Total Telephony base @ 562 Mn taking overall teledensity to 48%
• 19.1 Mn wireless additions (SIMs or connections is a better way to categorise this & not necessarily subscribers due to the dual/multi SIM phenomenon) in the month taking the overall base to 525 Mn
• Total unique wireless subs estimated at ~450 Mn
• Tata again led the pack with 17.5% of total wireless adds during the month followed by Bharti Airtel (15%), Reliance (14.7%) & Vodafone (14.6%)
• It largely continues to be multi-SIM growth as nearly 16 of the 19 Mn adds came from the 4 Metros and Category A & B circles
• Subs base of the newer operators end Dec - Tata [GSM+CDMA - though new adds are predominantly GSM] (57 Mn), Sistema (3 Mn), Telenor/Uninor (1.3 Mn)
• Wireline subs base dropped further to 37 Mn
• Broadband (> 256 kbps) subs base up marginally to 7.8 Mn
• Unlikely to take off till the grant of the WiMax licenses though this could become a focus area for telcos given - (i) commoditisation of voice, & (ii) the passive infra deployment/sharing and thereby easing time to market