Wireline sector manages slowed down decline in subscriber base in Feb, India

26-03-09 Corresponding to the wireless segment that has continuously posed an uninterrupted competitive front, the wireline sphere too has upheld its momentum, but with an unvarying fall in its subscription base, year after year.

The overall wireline base fell to 37.73 million in the month of February 2009 as compared to 37.75 million subscribers in January 2009, reporting a drop of 0.02 million. The decline is less when compared to January wherein 0.15 million surrenders of wireline services were recorded.

The space has the dominance of the two state actors- BSNL and MTNL, who have both successively showed a drop in subscription base. The wireline subscriber base of BSNL declined by 0.06 million to reach 29.22 million in February as against 29.29 million in January.

As opposed to the general perception, the operator fared quite well in nine circles, where it reported an increase in subscription base. The nine circles include Rajasthan, registering maximum number of growth with 4674 new subscribers, Chennai, where subscription base increased by 3758 subscribers, Madhya Pradesh with 2860 new additions, North East I with 102 new subscribers,  North East II with 538 new subscribers, Orissa with 584 fresh add on, UP East with 458 additions and UP West with 1768 new users.

MTNL too registered a drop of close to 9,200 customers to take its total subscriber base to 3.51 million from its earlier 3.52 million in the wireline space. Out of the two circles- Delhi and Mumbai, in which the player is operational, Delhi saw a plunge in subscription base while Mumbai on the other hand added few hundreds.

However, private telecom operators providing landline services like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices are faring well, with the exception of Sistema-Shyam Teleservices, which recorded a fall of about 1,500 wireline customers.

Bharti Airtel, the second largest wireline operator has shown slight increases in wireline subscription in all circles, with the highest being reported in Delhi/NCR, where it added 6,002 new wireline subscribers.

Telecom operator Reliance Communications too gave an overall good performance with its overall subscription base up from 1.90 million to 1.98 million in February this year. The players did particularly well in the metros, where it added a good pound of new subscribers.

Private operator Tata Teleservices too added 1,600 new wireline subscribers with a little drop reported only in the Karnataka circle. Its overall subscription base went up from .88 million to .90 million in February 09.

Also read